


The Joker

by Rona23



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Lance (Voltron), Bilingual Lance, Colors, Female pronouns for Pidge, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, M/M, Multilingual Lance, Open Ending, Secret Training, Seventh Wheel, Stalking, blue paladin, former blue paladin, invisible device, kind of season 3 spoilers (whithout myself having watched it yet), moms, secret, secret rooms, self worth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-11
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-11-13 00:12:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 28,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11172957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rona23/pseuds/Rona23
Summary: When Allura noticed that none of the characteristical features of the former blue paladin fit Lance´s character, she forces team Voltron to sneak after Lance to find out what the guy is doing all day.It is not until Keith´s turn that they realize, the guy is actually using his time. Moreover there is way more to the guy than what they gave him credit for.





	1. Chapter 1

“Actually, I´ve been wondering.”

Allura´s gaze was fixed at something. Or rather nothing in particular.   
Coran stopped for a second, seriously thinking.

“About what?”, it obviously caught even Hunk´s interest. Allura continued to drink her space goo through a green straw, but kept her brows narrowed.  
It was a funny sight, really.

“Well, Lance, actually.”

Keith almost choked on his drink, and he was not the only one. Pidge almost died of the amount of space goo stuck in her lungs at this point.

“Oh, sorry for the confusion. I did not intend it in such a way.  
I am wondering about his connection with the blue lion. I mean, at the beginning I was thinking since blue chose him as her pilot, he was the rightful paladin.  
But to be honest, I don´t see how?!”

Silence. 

“What do you mean, you don´t see how?”, Pidge asked innocently.  
“True, Lance is not exactly- wait a second. What are the characteristics of the blue paladin anyway?  
You never told us.”

“You´re right. Now that you are mentioning it?”, Hunk agreed, his hand raised towards his chin in thought.

“That is, because Lance never let me say it, remember? I mean, yeah, if you consider the powers of your lions, Keith as well does not seem fit for red.  
Moreover, I believe his usual collective self is more fit for the blue lion after all.  
But he is hot headed when it comes to battle and he indeed relies more on instinct than on skill alone.”, Allura waved at Keith, but her slight smile assured no offense.

“Well, relying on that, doesn´t that mean that the blue lion is a great strategist, cool in the center of danger and-”, Keith started to count his fingers as he stated the characteristics he was thinking of.

“Exactly. And that is what I am talking about.  
All of you share a lot of characteristics with the former paladins.   
Everyone except for Lance.

The past blue paladin was of cold nature. She was not concerned about any emotions or feelings, neither her own or of others.  
She was as objective as Keith, as intelligent as Pidge and had as much authority as Shiro.  
Romantic was the last thing she ever thought about, if at all.  
She did not care about appearances, she never hesitated when it came to fighting and was way more offensive than Lance is.  
Lance easily warms up to strangers and is way too naive for his position.  
He is bad at fighting, flying and actually everything the former paladin excelled at. And that is not even all there is to it.  
So why did blue chose him?”

Hunk opened his mouth to defend his best friend, but honestly? Even he was at a loss for words.  
This was in no way badmouthing Lance´s character.   
Lance was great, but it seemed like that was not what the blue paladin was supposed to be.  
“Now that you are saying it.   
Lance does easily get scared in tough situations. He also trusts people instantly and cries without reason.”, Hunk added.

“He does not even manage to pretend to be cool. How could he be cold?”, Pidge nodded.

“What is his special talent anyhow? I mean, Keith excels at both combat fighting as well as piloting, like red did. Pidge is our strategist and genius when it comes to any kind of computer, the same as green.  
Shiro obviously is our leader, and can do everything we can do as well. It pains to say it, but Zarkon has been similar.  
Hunk is the kind of person who would be perfect at protecting people and is also stable and kind and lights up everyone´s mood. This fits yellow precisely. So what about Lance?”, Allura noted.

“The only thing Lance shares with the former blue is probably that he is wielding a gun? Not that that was a bad thing, but he can only sharpshoot with his gun in reach.   
Thinking of us, the rest of our skills do not necessarily depend on our weapons.  
Lance´s only talent without a weapon are his flirting skills, which are neither successful or an actual strength.”

“Don´t say that, Keith. This sounds as though Lance was a mere replacement for someone yet to come!  
Blue chose him. He must have some hidden talent, right?”, even Hunk was not sure anymore. Especially after speaking out the one thing he never wanted Lance to be seen as.

“Oh come on, he is the only one who does not even have a hobby! He is always lingering around somewhere, while all of us are working!”, Keith crossed his arms.  
He was well aware of his angered voice, but he was being realistic for gods sake!

“Oh, I´m sure Lance is also doing, well. Something!”, Coran interrupted, but despite his fondness of the skinny brunette, he could not think of anything for himself.

“How about someone of us starts looking after what Lance does the whole day?”, Allura slowly asked and Pidge looked up at her.  
“I mean, so that he would not notice of course. We could even change turns. Whenever fits best! How about it?”, Allura explained further.

“Actually, that would be a great opportunity to test the invisibility device I was working on for our suits. You know, the same the green lion already has.  
Though, these ones last a lot longer.”, Pidge nodded slowly as if to lower the evil sounding plan Allura was proposing. 

“Alright, let´s do this. Let´s find out what makes our blue paladin the blue paladin!

How do we go on about this?  
I suggest everyone of us gets one part of the day.   
Well, except for breakfast, lunch and dinner there are the training sessions Lance usually tries to avoid.   
So that leaves a few hours for morning, after breakfast, afternoon, evening and night,

I suggest, Keith keeps track of the night times, since he does not sleep much anyways and Pidge needs those times to work.  
Pidge, I assign the after breakfasts to you.  
Hunk you take the afternoon, I myself take the morning before breakfast.  
Coran, could you take care of the evenings?  
I think, watching Lance doing nothing might make you tired, so I won´t be mad if you fall asleep, but it should be good for you to take some rest anyways. Since it is still morning, we´ll start this afternoon with Hunk, alright?”

 

\--------------------------------

Hunk felt weird watching his best friend. To be honest, Hunk as well was curious.   
What exactly made Lance the blue paladin? What was this guy doing the whole day if he was not with them?   
In the afternoon Hunk himself usually spend his time cooking of testing out some old machines.   
Keith was still training, Shiro and Allura were making plans,  
Coran kept doing Coran stuff and Pidge was on her laptop all day anyway.  
That left nobody for Lance to talk to or mess with, so what did he do?

So Hunk followed him.   
Fully invisible, but still trying not to make a sound so Lance would not notice him.

But after about three hours of following Lance through the whole castle, Hunk was certainly disappointed.  
Lance was doing... nothing.  
He only walked through the castle, chatted a little with Pidge as he saw her in the hangar, flirted with Allura as he loudly interrupted her and Shiro´s arguing, fought a little with Keith in a more literal way than actually throwing fists at each other and then went for the kitchen.  
In which Hunk should have been.  
Lance looked around, got himself a drink and Hunk hurried that Lance would not notice that he had in fact not been cooking for once.

After a small conversation, Coran had entered and saved Hunk from his duty to explain the lack of space cookies with some project the two of them had been working on. Which was an obvious lie.

So all in all... nothing new. Hunk felt kind of bad.

\------------------------------

Coran was the next one to follow Lance.   
It was evening and well, there actually was nowhere to follow Lance. Because the guy stayed with the other members of Voltron, talked to them, chatted and made fun of them. So long that it was already Keith´s turn as the boy left the room.

The thing was that Keith refused to follow Lance. 

\---------------------------------

Allura´s turn had been quite uneventful as well. She had sneaked into Lance´s room and well, watched him sleep.   
With his full face mask on and everything.  
She had almost been afraid to catch Lance doing some weird dirty stuff.... like talking to himself and praising his own looks.  
Instead, the guy overslept again, and when he finally got ready in the mirror he only made some finger guns at his own image and then headed for breakfast.

\----------------------------------

Pidge was just as lucky.  
After morning practice Lance just went back to his room to sleep for another full three hours.

\----------------------------

 

Needless to say the reports were quite boring.  
Even though, Allura was mad at Keith.   
“What are you mad about? That guy is probably sleeping the whole time anyway. There is not really a point why I should interrupt my training just to stalk Lance of all people!”

“That does not matter! Tonight, you will watch him, no excuses!”, Allura´s face narrowed to an angry mother face and who could argue with that level of determination?!

“Why not make Shiro do it?”, Keith – apparently.  
“Because Shiro is our voice of reason and would not approve of this activity. Don´t you dare tell him though!”  
“Fine, but only because it´s against Shiro´s will.”

\--------------------------

“Why did you not watch Lance?! We talked about this!”, Allura was furious. So furious, even Pidge and Hunk did not dare to look at her but hid their faces in their hands.

“This is your responsibility! If you don´t want to do it at night, say so from the beginning!”  
“Allura, listen! This time was not my fault!”

“Oh, really? So what is your forbidden excuse this time? This happened for the seventh time already! You really need a better excuse than, ´I missed him going into his room and his room got a password´ this time!”

“It´s because he never came to his room!”

At that, Allura went silent and Keith knew he won.   
“What do you mean, he never came? He is always in his room when my turn starts!”, Allura was visibly irritated.

“Yeah, about that. After about five hours I went to my room and got my much needed sleep.   
I´ll find out tonight, I promise!”

The last thing Keith saw as he left the room were Hunk and Pidge silently exchanging glances with each other as Allura and Coran tried to think something into this kind of behavior.

 

\----------------------------------

Dinner was over and even the group time between the paladins drew to a close and like every evening, Lance stood up and said good night.  
As soon as Lance left the room, Keith pressed the button to his invisible cloak in front of everybody, who were wishing him luck, while Shiro almost died of a heart attack at his sudden disappearance.  
But there was no point in hiding it from him anyway, so Keith followed Lance and left Shiro to the others.  
He had a very important mission to follow.   
After all, after a whole week of waiting for Lance to return to his room, even Keith got curious and his excitement caused him to speed run as silently as possible after the blue paladin.

Keith barely missed Lance, who was just turning around a corner in high speed.  
´The hell?´, Keith muttered under his breath as he turned up his own speed.  
Alright, Keith had always been proud of his own speed and stamina, but Lance was -  
on a different level.  
At a certain point Keith stopped thinking were they would run and if Lance could hear his breathing and steps behind him.  
They had long passed the corridor which lead to Lance´s room.  
Instead, Lance headed the opposite direction, to a part of the castle Keith had never even considered visiting.  
Lance, on the other hand, seemed to know the twisted corridors like the palm of his hand.

Breathing got harder, burning sensations flooded Keith´s whole body.   
That was why he never did sports without stretching! And Lance? Lance smiled, truly smiled.  
That rare smile that was only seen when Lance thought nobody was looking.  
A fond smile that held all of Lance´s emotions in them.  
Was this guy..... enjoying the exhaustion?

On second thought, maybe the exercise was good after all. Since that way Keith could blame his exploding heartbeat on it for once.  
When Lance finally slowed down, Keith almost crashed into him.  
´Sure, now you are stretching, bastard!´, Keith heaved into his mind while trying not to catch Lance´s attention because of the slight whistling sound coming from his mouth.

Finally, Lance´s pace was that of a normal person and Keith held his side as he followed Lance into a room, Keith would have missed otherwise.  
And again, Keith had problems to catch his breath.  
The room they had entered looked like a mix of a training deck and a library.   
Keith did not even know so many books even existed to begin with.   
After a second of taking a break, other thoughts started to form in his mind.

What was this place?  
How did Lance find this?  
What did he do in here?  
And most importantly: Why was he hiding this place?

Lance, however slowly walked in between the shelves, looked at some random books and moved again.  
At some place he stopped and took the book with the biggest size in the whole round, smiled to himself and then sat down to read it.  
And Keith almost lost it.  
Was that... all?  
What did he come here for? He felt his anger boiling inside of his veins and he knew he was very close to snap at Lance.

If that guy had not started talking to himself.

That alone would not have triggered anything in Keith, but the fact that Lance was not speaking any kind of language Keith had ever heard.  
It sounded like a mix of some languages he had once heard though.  
Sounds of his clicking tongue or clashing teeth were filled the room. It almost sounded like a melody.  
At least the way Lance was reciting it.

Sometimes Lance would stop at a certain passage and start talking to himself in spanish or korean. At some time he even said something in german.  
But not in the way people usually do when they had learned a language in school.  
No, Lance was talking as if he had lived there.  
Which, in Keith´s book was most unlikely.

Without noticing, Keith spend the next three hours staring at Lance, if not listening.  
It took him about half an hour to realize that while Lance was fluently speaking most of the languages, he was not as used to the words he was reading out.  
That was when it had struck Keith.  
Lance was actually learning altean.  
And he was years ahead even of pidge if Keith dared saying so.

“Oh Quiznack!”, Lance suddenly closed the book and put it back.   
He practically jumped to his feet and almost made Keith trip in the process as he ran towards the part of the room which looked like a training deck.  
And obviously, that was exactly what it was.  
It did not take long for Lance to say the magical words: “Begin training sequence level 5.”  
And again, Keith was awestruck.  
Why on earth would Lance start with level five, if downstairs he was not even able to beat level two.

The answer actually was simple.  
This training sequences were different than the once Keith was used to by now.  
Keith used the training deck designed for combat training.  
Lance´s training resembled a field trip for soldiers to get used to different terrain.  
And training level 5 in this room focused on ….. swimming.  
Actually it was fighting in the water and Keith had almost died in shock as the water had flooded the room and he almost thought the books were done for.  
But those had been protected by blue glowing shields right in front of them. So no need to panic. 

The shelves were even used by Lance to... dance on them.  
And once again, Keith could not stop staring while Lance was practically parcouring and dancing at the same time through the room.  
Which was more- he did not have his bayard with him.  
Instead, Lance was not exactly fighting, but avoiding whatever kind of gun was aimed at him.   
Keith was not in the middle of the training session, but he knew for sure that he himself would have trouble dodging all those bullets.  
But Lance- Lance was avoiding them with closed eyes.  
Only relying on instinct and his own ears and though Keith was not exactly sure about it, he for a moment thought that Lance was still smiling.  
He stepped up the training from time to time and the terrain switched at every level.  
As at level 7 the gravity had been shut down, Keith had almost blown his own cover in surprise.

Not even once did Lance interrupt his training like he did in combat training. He never said something to praise himself or make fun of anyone else like he sometimes tended to do.  
It was as if he was captivated by his own dance.  
And after a while Keith understood what Lance was doing.

As a pilot who had to be precise at shooting, he also had to dodge, since he could not always rely on the rest of the team to have his back.  
Quite the opposite, actually.  
Lance, Keith realized, was the back of their team. He was the one on the defense, trusted to protect the rest of the team. But when it came to himself he was defenseless.  
As long as someone would be too close to him.  
So in order to keep the rest of the team safe, Lance had to be able to shoot while dodging, which became part of training level 13.  
Keith realized that he himself could be doing this kind of training as well, but he was so occupied with combat training that he had not even thought of it.  
As long as he had his partner, everything should turn out fine, actually.

To Lance, however, his training was essential, even when all of them worked together.  
Also, Keith had never bothered to adapt to anyone he was fighting with, Lance however switched between person to person.  
And while watching Lance thinking of each individual terrain as if he was only slightly familiar with it, he also realized that Lance was doing the same with each of them.

During the time in team Voltron, Pidge had finally opened up to Hunk, while she always got along fine with Shiro who had shown faith to her and all.  
Keith had also opened up to each of the paladins.

To each of them... but Lance. And except for Hunk, he doubted anyone knew anything about Lance at all.

The mere reason why he was following Lance was prove enough.  
And Lance was steadily adapting.  
With Keith he would argue. In front of Shiro he would praise himself. With Allura he would flirt. With Hunk he would joke and with Pidge he would make a fool of himself. But what of that was real?  
Only one thing was certain.  
Keith knew nobody who was not at least smiling next to Lance. Nobody who would not trust him to fail at the training, but success in battle.

But Lance himself was a secret to him. 

“Stop – huff- training sequence!”, Lance said, breathing heavily and trying to calm down.  
“Stop training sequence level 27”, a voice replied, leaving Keith dazzled.  
27.  
That was three levels ahead of Shiro. Though the training Shiro did was different as well.

And not once had Lance even managed this kind of training.  
Had never bragged about his skills.   
Keith was truly shocked.   
He checked the time. It only a couple of hours before breakfast. Keith hoped that this was the end of tonight´s surprises, but Lance did not leave the room yet. Instead he sat down and drank from a bottle Keith had not managed to notice before.

“Start offense training level 1!”  
Keith had been prepared to leave.  
But Lance only sighed and stepped up to the training deck again.

And this kind of training was different was well.   
Or rather not as different as before.   
This was simple combat training. The one, Lance failed the most.   
However, while not knowing he was being watched – Lance´s fighting was- to say it simply.... way better.  
At least twice as good as usual. He managed to get to level 4.  
This time with his bayard of course. When the fighting robot had finally cornered Lance and the blue paladin shouted for the training to stop, Keith was feeling weirdly proud.

But soon, his own smile was washed from his face as Lance almost crushed his hand while punching the ground beneath him.  
“Damn it! Why do I never get this right?! That bastard always pretends to go for my left, why can´t I go for the damn right?”

“Because it is a robot, not a human.”, thought Keith.  
But he was not entirely sure about that!   
It was more of a feeling than anything.   
After all, Lance was used to adapting to people and therefore must know how they would react in certain situations.   
Lance was used to unpredictable opponents like Keith himself or the constantly changing terrains.  
The robot however used a pattern.  
And Lance must be instinctively thinking that the robot was well aware of that and trying to change these patterns.   
But since it was a robot, it just fought the same as always.

Lance, however seemed too frustrated to continue and finally left the training deck.  
About two hours before breakfast, thank goodness.

Only that Lance was still not leaving for his room but blues hangar.  
And Keith knew he would not see much of Lance now, since the guy not only entered blue and blue could obviously sense Keith´s presence.  
But Lance was also bonding with Blue.  
He only left about one hour before shift change.  
Yawing and stretching, Lance got ready for bed, with Keith creepily watching him from the corner of his eyes.   
And he took about three quarters of an hour.   
Lance just fell asleep a few minutes prior as the door opened and Keith knew, Allura just entered the room.

Keith just left without letting himself be noticed.  
First of all, he was tired as hell.   
Second of all- he needed to process the new information.

\---------------------------

“So? Why were you not with Lance yesterday?”, Allura glared daggers at Keith.  
Keith only yawned.  
“Could you please be quiet? I did not sleep much last night!”, Keith murmured.  
“What was that? Don´t tell me you missed him again!   
I´ve really had enough of you -”

“Quiznack Allura. I did not get enough sleep, because Lance did not either! He was barely asleep when you started your shift!”  
“You mean, Lance was awake all night? What did he do?”, Pidge questioned excitedly and even Allura shut up for once.  
Keith actually felt kind of great about that fact.

“Well. I found out that Lance is actually a genius.”  
Keith grinned at the insider info, while Pidge and Hunk just simultaneously started giggling. “Yeah sure. Be honest. You just skipped your shift and hang around invisible somewhere.”, Hunk mocked him.  
Shiro seemed curious as well but did not seem fond of the whole situation.   
Had calmed down though.

“Are you sure you want to risk him hearing that?!”, he asked nervously.

“He won´t. He is way to exhausted to not sleep right now.”, Keith took a sip of his coffee.   
“Well. It turned out that Lance is currently learning Altean.”  
Allura almost screamed.  
“What? What? How? He was not at the training deck was he? Is he good? Is he making progress? I mean I could always help, if-”  
“Allura, calm down.  
I don´t think he needs your help. He was reading a giant book, commenting on it in different languages and stuff.”

“Wait, hold on. You mean Lance speaks multiple languages?”, Hunk seemed shook and so was Keith at the mere thought of Hunk not knowing.  
“Yeah, I mean, he was talking in spanish, something in korean and german and two other languages I don´t know of. Chinese or something maybe? I don´t think he spent much time on thinking about it though.  
Sounded like he was learning Altean through comparing it with languages he already speaks fluently.”, keith nodded slowly.

The silence after that information was actually deafening.   
“Why would he hide that kind of skill from us?”, Shiro asked, mainly looking at Hunk.   
“I don´t really know?”, Hunk looked down.

“I guess, I do understand.”, Allura suddenly spoke up again.   
“The Alteans as well as every other species I´ve ever met, do speak your language. There is no need for Lance to actually learn Altean.  
Neither is there for him to continue any other language than english.   
Maybe he believes it is as unnecessary skill?”  
Keith wanted to interrupt. He wanted to say, that Lance would never leave out a chance to brag, but he had learned enough for one day to know that that was naive.

“I would never have thought that Lance was learning the whole night through.”, Pidge murmured.  
“Or train on a second training deck neither of us has ever known existed!”, Keith added and again, he was surrounded by silence.

“He.... trains. On his own accord?!”, Shiro stared at Keith in disbelief.

“Well. He was training something other than combat-”

“Wait. You mean that second room that the former blue paladin had made her own and shut down after she left? That cannot be true.   
The training consists of terrain in different terrain. Also the combat training there is way harder than the once you others are attending!”, Allura shook her head.  
“If so, which level did he make? One in combat? Barely survived the terrain fields? That is way too dangerous!”, Allura was almost sounding frustrated.

Keith just stared at her. His mouth wide open.  
“4.”, breathed out in shock.

“What? You mean he actually managed level four? Are you kidding me? No way!”, Allura´s eyes widened.

“in combat training that is.”, he said, now with slightly more confidence.  
Pidge´s mouth dropped open. Hunk simply did not process what was going on right now.

“How did he do in the other one?”, Allura seemed almost frightened by the new information.  
And Keith? Keith did not dare to answer.   
By the way she was staring at him, even the most impossible answer was at level 7 perhaps.

“- seven”, he hold his breath. And Allura almost suffocated. “Seven?! No! You´ve got to be wrong! That is impossible!  
“No. It´s not seven but-”  
Allura stared at Keith. “Twenty seven.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Despite Keith´s efforts to find out Lance´s secrets, neither of the other paladins seem to believe him.  
> In order to prove that Lance has many talents,   
> Keith keeps following him.  
> Due to his ambition Keith finally starts understanding parts of Lance´s character.   
> That, at least, keeps on until Lance finds out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I had just updated chapter one about a few hours and suddenly I had so many nice comments on it, thank you guys so much <3  
> Might not be that much tbh, but hey, for someone who just started I am surely being well recognized ;)
> 
> Also, I do not know how far I will take this fanfiction.   
> It was originally supposed to be a one shot, then developed into a fic of two chapters and now I am still not done.  
> I still need Allura and the rest to find out the hard way (no promises) and the whole Klance thing to go down.  
> Also an explanation why Lance is not mad at Keith for being stalked....  
> We´ll work on it.

Needless to say, nobody believed him.  
Allura just shook her head stubbornly, after almost believing Keith. Level 27 seemed too far stretched for her to take it seriously.  
Pidge simply doubted that Lance, as Keith had insisted, was able to run faster than Keith for a full half an hour.

Hunk had chosen her side because he had seen Lance in gym class and had seen Lance struggling with English classes back at the Garrison.

In Gym, Lance had apparently always been bragging about his skills, while constantly failing to dodge an easy ball thrown at him in dodgeball.  
Shiro, as he trusted Hunk´s knowledge about the blue paladin, since Hunk had known Lance since childhood, sided with the obvious choice.  
And Coran? Coran had remained silent throughout the whole conversation.

A fact that made Keith wonder.  
Or rather would have, if he had noticed it. If he was not so angry at the rest of the team for simply not believing him, after they had practically forced him to find out something about their fellow blue paladin.

So Keith decided to follow Lance once again.   
He did not have any prove for Lance´s behavior. Nor did he know more than what he had found out during one night.  
And because he had stayed awake that one night, Keith was unable to attend the training lessons.  
Instead he got some of his much needed sleep.

When the night came along, Keith went on ahead, before Lance would start his speed running.  
Keith had realized that since he himself was not able to catch up with Lance long enough to ensure he was not seen in the process of breathing and surviving, he would just walk to the place, Lance had unknowingly shown him the day prior.  
So, there Keith was. While the rest of the team still had dinner.

Because he was alone, Keith took his time to walk through the library. Not that he understood a single word that had been written there, but that only impressed him even further.  
Why was Lance hiding such a skill?

Even if he would somehow believe that learning Altean was not that impressive, Lance would always put his skills on shelves that were way higher than Lance himself could ever reach.  
Knowing languages was amazing. 

Not everyone could do it and especially if Lance, the same guy who messed up in fighting and flying missions was able to achieve such a skill-  
Suddenly a thought hit Keith.

Except for- if Lance not only believed that learning Altean was not impressive at all- if Lance actually believed that skill was a basic one – if Lance believed everyone else might have already mastered it -   
if Lance thought this skill was unnecessary or barely basic standard even?

Allura was Altean, Coran was Altean. And they were the only ones left.   
And neither of them was unable to communicate with them.   
So were the Galra.   
So were everyone they had met until now.

Keith´s thoughts were suddenly interrupted as Lance kicked open the door. He was breathing heavily and just for a moment Keith was startled.

Almost did he ask what Lance was doing here. Almost had he blown his cover.

\-----------------------------

Keith watched him again.  
He listened to Lance reading and talking to himself. He watched as Lance took a look on his watch and started training.

He started of at level 5 again.   
But he stopped at level 29, instead of level 27. Keith hadn´t even realized how fast the time moved forward. 

Lance might not be fighting, but his dodging and his movements were fluid like water.  
Again, Keith had the feeling Lance was dancing through all of this training. As if he was parcouring or break dancing.

When he had started to shoot again, his aim was sharp and precise and Keith had the feeling he was watching an assassin, rather than an amateur.  
When Lance stopped, it was like waking up from a dream. Keith was dazzled for a moment, not registering were he was.

It wasn´t until Lance left the room again, that Keith remembered why he had come here.  
So he followed Lance again. And again, he headed for the hangar.  
Keith knew what would happen from then on.   
And as much as he´d liked to stay, he decided that he still needed some sleep.

So for now he headed back to his room.

But he had a feeling that this was not the last night that he would follow Lance.  
In fact, from this point onward, Keith would watch Lance every night.  
Obviously this would influence his sleep schedule the same way it did on Lance and for the first time it was not Lance who would be the last one to hit the training deck.

It was only the fifth day in a row that Keith realized how hard Lance´s sleep routine actually was.  
Instead of the “beauty sleep”, he got to call it “Torture nights”.  
He went to sleep earlier than Lance did, but still Lance managed to head for breakfast on time, like always, since Allura had lectured him about it once.

Well – most of the times at least.   
Keith, on the other hand, struggled to attend lunch, to say the least. And if Allura managed to drag him out of bed, it was impossible for him to keep up with the training.

At this rate, Keith knew he would not only not improve anymore, but actually fail at everything from then on.

The best results did he get when he trained at the evening, but group training turned into pure hell.  
Keith stopped making fun of Lance altogether. 

Whenever Lance made a mistake, Keith not only understood, he felt with him.

Especially when the other team members started to notice Keith´s condition.  
But after sending him back to bed every day for the next week, they started criticizing him for every mistake. 

How did they not notice the similarity?  
Why did they not ask him if he was okay?

In the beginning it was bearable, but after some time Keith started to fear these comments he was not used to.  
The weight of the words became heavy after a while.

For the first time Keith began wondering how Lance had kept up with all of this, since they had gotten to space.  
Because he realized, that he himself had been just as awful to him as everyone else on the team. Sometimes worse even.

He really wanted, no, he needed this to stop! He could not screw up all the time!

But, some habits die hard. And after his seventh attempt to stop, Keith became aware of the fact that it was impossible for him to return to his normal training exercises.  
He was addicted to watching Lance train. Which – actually sounded weirder as it was serious.

His own betraying words echoed in the back of his mind:   
“You cannot stay second to Lance!”  
And finally it made sense why Lance had always been trying to challenge him.

 

\---------------------------------------

One day, things changed. 

It was on the day that they had almost found new information on the whereabouts of Pidge´s family.  
Keith had followed Lance like usual. Or rather, he had waited for him in the same spot like always.  
Only for Lance to not appear.

Hours had passed.   
Time surely flows different when you were waiting instead of enjoying the usual show.   
Hell, he even fell asleep.  
But still, no Lance. No sign of him ever having been here.  
Sighing, Keith stood up, ready to leave the room, when he saw the book Lance was reading every day.

For some reason, Keith never knew why, he had never cared what the signs drawn in there had meant.  
Until now.   
Curious he took the book into his hands, trying to read at least one passage. But obviously, Keith did not know even one of those words.  
But- something about the symbols seemed familiar.  
Rushing through the pages, as though he was searching for something, Keith finally stopped at one certain page.  
Only to find lions.   
Not just the lions of Voltron, he realized. There was something with them that reminded Keith of home. 

And he felt like he had discovered some of the symbols once.  
When it finally clicked, he could have punched himself for his own stupidity.

It were not exactly the same pictures, but still, it was obvious that the same person had drawn these than had craved the drawings in the cage where they had found Lance´s lion.  
Maybe he should show these symbols to Allura?

Maybe she could decipher them for him?  
But then Lance would find out that Keith was stalking him everyday. So, he decided against it.   
For now he needed to know where Lance went.

\-----------------------------

Lance had noticed it from the very first second. 

The information that had slipped from their hands, when they had been so close. Of course Pidge would be upset. When he had noticed that she was about to cry to herself through the night, he had done the obvious.

He decided to keep her company.   
That was what he had told her, when she asked. He had listened to her ramble about her family for hours.   
Had gotten to know so much about her personal story, her feelings, her wishes for the future, her ambitions, even some of her secrets.

Keith, for his part, had only heard her question. And Lance´s answer. And he saw them hugging things out.   
The red paladin was not shocked, if that was how he invisibly appeared.

But he had found out something new about Lance and like all those times before, he felt his heart rate rising.  
Maybe, because he felt like a spy on both of them.

Maybe, because he was excited to finally have some insight to Lance´s personality.   
The curiosity and the lack of patience he had felt since the first time he had seen the blue paladin in the healing pod was slowly being taken care of.

That was something he only noticed because he was not even focusing on Pidge right now.

Only on Lance.  
Lance, who had skipped his personal and private training session to keep Pidge company.

Lance who had not once talked around the elephant in the room, but kept listening despite his own loud nature.

Keith was sure he should not be here for now.  
Not only for his own sake, but Pidge´s.  
This was Pidge´s and Lance´s moment and he, despite being invisible, was not supposed to be a witness on this unique little meeting.

\-------------------------------

Keith managed to get up on time the next day and he felt his own limbs thanking him for taking his sleep seriously for once.

Pidge, however, overslept, as expected.   
Shiro and Hunk only exchanged glances as Keith had pointed out that she now did not have the right to talk him over now.

Shiro only replied that the same went for Keith in regards to Lance. Though Shiro intended to provoke Keith, the red paladin beamed at him.  
“Yeah, right?”

Speaking of the devil, Lance entered the room before Keith´s reaction could be questioned.

 

And for the first time in weeks, Keith was eating breakfast.   
For the first time in forever he noticed how tired Lance was.   
Despite his usual happy and outgoing character, he just seemed – exhausted to say the least.

So he had been awake the whole night again.  
Just for Pidge and her problems. 

Keith could not have been more fond of the blue Paladin as he was right now.   
Screw it, Keith had always been fond of Lance. He had just never known why.  
And the prideful part of himself was telling him that he had always known deep down, but only started to realize by the time he consciously started to seek out his crush.

And there was more.

Since Keith had finally had a good night of sleep, he was finally able to fight properly again. And when he headed for his personal training in the afternoon, he felt lighter than ever.  
For once he did not screw up.

Lance, however, did. But he did not seem to be bothered by it. Moreover Keith noticed the way Lance smiled in relieve.

When Keith hit the training deck that afternoon he fought better than ever.   
He was not consumed by curious thoughts anymore ….

Until Lance went in to watch him practice like usual.

Keith kept on fighting. Reaching level 9 for the first time since he started training.

,like usual´.

Keith slipped. It was only a fracture of a second that the Gladiator had taken full advantage of his off trailing thoughts.  
But it was Lance who had ended the training sequence, while boasting about how he himself would not have failed.  
Lance had was still at level 4 in his private practice, but Keith could not stop himself from believing him.  
And that alone made him feel dizzy.

Keith did not answer him. He started to feel his heart pounding.

First, in his chest. Than in his hands who started sweating bullets. Then in his ears.

Hunk had told him all about it, right?   
How Lance was never doing anything in the afternoon. He had questioned why Lance would train at night, when he could be doing it while everybody was doing their own thing anyway.

Finally, he had an answer to that.   
Lance was taking care of each of them. He was looking after them. He noticed if something was wrong.   
Lance pushed his own needs passed the needs of others.

That was also why he was training alone. Because he could not focus with the others around. Because he would try to help each of them.  
He would analyze every change in behavior.   
That was why he knew languages, because he deeply cared about the others feeling comfortable.  
Of course he would not brag about that.

“Hey, Keith, are you okay?”, Lance suddenly asked, which only added to Keith´s sudden understanding.

“Have I ever told you, you are amazing?”, Keith could not stop himself and honestly, he felt as if he was in a dream. He barely heard himself saying it.  
He did not wait for an answer. 

No matter how Lance would react, there was nothing for Keith to fear right now. Even if Lance would be angry, because he thought Keith was messing with him or was not ready to hear such praise.  
Even if Lance would think it was simply a joke, even if Lance would brag about it later.  
Keith knew he would not regret his words.  
So he left.

Or tried to at least, until Lance managed to get out of his puzzled state.

“Are you saying that because you have followed me those past few weeks?”  
Keith froze. And again, his heart rate started to pick up speed.  
“How- I mean what are you talking about? Follow you where?”

“Oh, come on Keith. Did you really think I would not notice?  
You have been acting really strange lately. You never managed to get up early enough to get breakfast, you fail at the training deck, you do not complain when I screw up and even defended me a few times in front of Shiro. Shiro!”, he emphasized.

“Also, Pidge told me she was working on an invisibility device a few weeks ago and soon after that I felt that I was being followed.   
I´m guessing you are not the only one who did it?”

Keith looked down.  
It was time to tell him, right? Lance deserved an explanation, Keith knew that much.

“You´re right.”

“Well, I expected as much as Coran told me about you´re little gossip talk about whether I deserved to be the blue paladin.”

Keith blinked. Once. Twice.   
Coran had told him, what exactly?  
“Lance, it was not like that! We did not – we-”, he actually was at a loss for words. What exactly did Lance hear and why exactly was he smiling like that?

“You have seen the book that was lying around at the second training deck, right?   
Originally I should not have been able to open the training deck at all. It was sealed. Only the blue paladin was able to enter the room.   
But not the same way blue opened up to me.”

That was – quite the way to change subject, Keith thought to himself as Lance paused and took a deep breath.

“I talked it over with Coran and Coran did not believe me, obviously. When I showed him, he was totally afraid. It was quite funny, actually.  
But then he told me that I would have to be related to the former blue paladin to be able to open the door.  
That when we started guessing that I am part Altean.”

Keith still stared at him. “What?”, Keith almost shouted. What the actual quiznack was going on here?  
Keith.exe had stopped working.

“Yeah. It appears she was Altean or something. I did not think it mattered that much. But that actually became the reason why I wanted to learn the Altean language.  
So, what I am saying is – I found the book I mentioned already.  
I started reading it and found out how the blue lion ended up on earth.

The blue paladin was told to hide her somewhere by Alfor. But while fleeing, some Galra ships got them.  
In attempt to escape, blue was shot and therefore was bound to crash on planet earth.  
To save her paladin, blue shot her ice cannons towards the earth to lessen the weight of the impact.  
However, blue herself got caught in the ice.  
That is how the blue paladin survived the ten thousand years.”

Lance breathed out.

“But, didn´t we find the blue lion in a cave, in the middle of a desert?!”, Keith finally found his voice. That story was unbelievable.

“Sure. My guess is that one of the Garrison tests on weapons and bombs and stuff blew up the place. At least that is what my mother had told me.  
That is how the desert became a desert.   
The blue paladin then hid the blue lion and created those carvings.  
Oh yeah and I guess she became my mother along the way.”

Keith opened his mouth. Then he closed it, only to open it again.

“Seems like we are not that different, huh? Galra Keith and Altean Lance.”

“Y-yeah.”, Keith said as Lance finally passed him. He did not have the time to ask Lance why he trusted him with that information.  
He did not have the time to question any of these revelations.

Lance sure was amazing.

\-------------------

The blue paladin is cold in nature.  
He is sharp and observant.  
His objective is to be the back of the team.  
His legacy is to not be noticed as such.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance´s past had caused him to act - well - the way we know him.  
> For once he might be able to show off a little...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I stood up at 9 am to write this and it took me 4 hours at least.  
> I hope you guys enjoy my suffering XD
> 
> I know there isn´t as much Klance as it should be and my descibtions of terrains and Lance´s fighting style lack a ton,   
> but I am positive you guys have enough fantasie to add to this^^
> 
> Your comments have been so nice, I am glad so many people enjoy this. If you have ideas what to connect or what else to write or how I could improve, feel free to tell me.  
> I want this to be as good as possible with my current skills.  
> Your help would be greatly appreachiated :D

Keith wanted to stop watching Lance train. He really tried.  
But every time he went to sleep, he saw Lance. A floating, fighting, dancing Lance. So clearly visible, he wondered if there was a second reality, more real than the one he lived in.

And whenever that happened, he could not stay in his bed, but had to go to that room again.  
This time, however, he decided he did not need the invisible device.  
Lance would know he was there either way.

Still, Lance was surprised to actually see him.  
Like in … visibly seeing him.  
“Oh, hey Keith. What are you doing here?”, Lance switched his bayard to his left hand in a swift motion to be able to turn around and take a look at Keith.  
So he had switched to fighting with his bayard already. This could only mean he had passed level 13. By what Keith could guess, Lance must have been fighting even faster than usual.

“I just thought, if I intended to watch you again, I should let you know.   
Also, for the record, nobody believed me the first time I told them about your training, so no worries about keeping my mouth shut.”

“Oh, sure. Go ahead. You could join me, if you want.   
Keith was actually caught of guard by the suggestion. Since when was Lance willing to fight with him, instead of arguing that he should leave.   
Even Keith was aware of the fact that following a fellow paladin was bordering the line to stalking.

For a moment, he let his own mind wander, as he watched Lance dodge a particular hard bullet in a smooth swift to the side and a twirl around himself.  
Though, something seemed kind of – off.

“No, I´d rather watch, I guess.”, Keith shrugged and politely declined Lance´s offer, as he sat down on the next shelve outside of the training field.  
“Afraid to -”, Lance grin was caught of, as he was finally hit.

“End training sequence at level 17.”

Keith blinked. This was quite... unexpected.  
He stared at Lance in disbelieve. “What just happened?”, he asked, completely dumbfounded.   
He had never seen Lance mess up this badly, unless it was in combat training down with the other members of Voltron.

Suddenly an idea hit him.

,With the others.´ Could it be?

“Lance? Does it bother you that I am here watching you?”, Keith asked nervously, as he rubbed his hands together. He had a weird feeling about this.

“What? No, of course not. Don´t worry, I was just caught off of guard. I´ll start from level 16, I´ll show you.”

But he failed again. He did not even last five minutes, as he stumbled over his own feet and the gladiator shot him right in the head.   
Thank goodness this was not a real fight or else Lance would have been wounded or dead.  
Now it would just hurt for a few hours.   
Keith could see how Lance was biting back the pain.

“Could it be, Lance, that you can only succeed in this sort of training when nobody is watching? Are you failing, because – because”, Lance shushed him almost immediately.  
“Keith, please, don´t ask me such questions. I am the great Lance McClain, remember? Dealing with people is my thing!”, his grin was weak as he dared glancing at Keith.

“But”, Keith questioned. “When I was watching you earlier, you managed to get to level 29! There is no -”

“36.”, Lance stopped him again and suddenly his eyes went wide. As if he had not meant to say it out loud.

Keith, who had his arms reached out in an exaggerating gesture, stopped in his tracks to look at Lance in confusion.  
“I reached level 36.”, Lance confirmed with a sigh.

Keith closed his mouth for a second. Could this really be? Could Lance be messing with him? Level 36 seemed a bit much for Lance. On the other hand, Allura thought level 7 was much, so...

“When did you start getting to lower levels.” Honestly? This was not exactly a question Keith wanted to ask, but he had a feeling that he would get more answers with this than with any direct question. Especially as he saw Lance lowering his head in defeat.  
Holy crow, the guy was still sitting on the ground of the training deck, the gladiator waiting for another order.  
“About the time you started stalking me.”

Keith´s eyes widened at that. And finally, finally, everything made sense.   
“Oh, my god, Lance!”  
“Seriously, no need to call me a god, Kogane.”, Lance grinned at Keith in a weak attempt to lighten the mood, but the look of the red paladin said it all.

“You, Lance, cannot deal with audiences! That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard, no way.   
Lance McClain! The Lance McClain, the same guy who flirts with everyone who doesn´t look out for themselves, the guy who brags about each and every of his lucky shot, actually cannot deal with people.  
That´s got to be a joke.”   
Keith really did not mean to sound rude. He really did not. But this revelation was just too much. 

“Yeah, yeah. No reason to make fun of me.  
Honestly, you do not have to be an ass about it.”, Lance flushed in anger at Keith who was staring at him in shock.  
“So you knew this all along?”, he asked with the ghost of a laugh on his features. Because, really? Who would not laugh at Lance in this particular situation?  
Though the fact that Lance was aware of his own misery was more surprising than what Keith was ready to admit.

But then, Lance sighed and tapped his left arm with his fingers as he nodded in defeat.  
“I should have known you would find out one way or another. You know, it had always been like this. Stuff usually comes really easy to me, you know.   
At least stuff like languages and talking to people, you know. My guess is that this only works when people do not expect anything of me.

Back at the Garrison I would learn and learn for each test like a maniac, but as soon as I am questioned stuff, my mind simply goes blank. 

In tests it is fine, because I can kind of blend out that people are expecting anything from me.  
That is how I got into the Garrison in the first place.

But when it comes to important tests in gym class or the teacher asks questions directly, I cannot concentrate.  
I kind of manage to say something, but obviously it´s not what they want to hear.   
When tests come around I usually manage, as I said already. But most of the times the teacher believes I have to be cheating, since I do not live up to expectations in normal classes. So they started watching me more closely at some point. 

And hell, I only had excellent grades when the teacher was not looking, so they always stood directly behind the desk to watch me fail.  
I am not even surprised that they always suspected I was cheating.

It was obviously the same for the flight simulator.  
It is the same with our training exercises, at least.   
Though it is different when I am here, training in my mom´s old training room.   
Because here is the only place where nobody expects me to reach a certain level.  
When I felt you watching me for the first time, I could kind of blend out that you were here, since you were invisible, but now that I can see you and have to talk to you-  
Also, in the beginning you probably expected nothing of me. So I guess-”

Lance was rambling on, but to be honest? Keith was not even surprised. This made so much sense.  
Except for one thing.

“Lance? You know that the only thing most people expect of you is to fail, right?”

Lance actually froze at that comment. Great, Keith. That is exactly what Lance needed to hear.  
But the guy only took another deep breath until he answered.  
“That is not entirely true, you know.  
Or else you guys would not be so disappointed all the time.  
To be honest, I do not really care much about it, anymore. With me failing, that means nobody else gets yelled at.”

Keith stared at him for a second.  
“So, you gave up on fighting?”, he asked and Lance hugged himself even tighter, still without sparing him a glance.

“Lance? I don´t think you fail at stuff, because you are afraid not to reach others expectations anymore.   
I believe you fail, because you stopped trying to reach any given expectation, since you believe you cannot do it. So if what we expect is you to do something, you mess up on purpose. If we rely on you, you expect yourself to fail and therefore you do.  
If we expect you to fail, you don´t even try to exceed that norm. Am I right?”

Lance laughed at that a little. The worried tone in Keith´s voice forgotten.   
“Of course you are. But tell me were I am wrong with that mentality. In the end, with that way of thinking, and me messing up because of it, this is still true, right?!”  
Lance was curling even more to himself as he said that. Ashamed of himself.

“So that´s it?”, Keith asked. “You are giving up?”  
This was not entirely true, Keith knew it. Otherwise Lance would not be doing this kind of training all the time.  
Not if he had given up. Still, why would he give up? And with his own conviction that trying was not worth anything anymore, why was he trying at all?

That in itself was the only thing Keith was certain of. Lance tried. Halfheartedly, perhaps, but he did.

Lance must be hiding something.   
The blue paladin did not even dare to look at Keith, and his arms were crossed, as if he was trying to defend himself from Keith´s words.

“Promise me, not to laugh, alright?”, Lance finally sighed and looked up to Keith, nervously.   
Keith sat up straight, after that. Fully bracing himself for whatever Lance was about to trust him with.

“I think that – I fail because I compare myself to you.”

Again, Keith waited. Waited for more. For something he did not know yet. For a more clear answer to his previous question.   
But Lance just looked at him, anxiety mirrored in his eyes.  
It sounded like the start of a story Lance was about to outline in order for Keith to understand on his own.  
Maybe Lance was not sure about all of this himself?

So Keith decided to play along a little. In order to make Lance talk. Because words were the only things not restricting the guy.

“You mean, that is all? Don´t you compare yourself to everyone?”,  
but Lance shook his head.  
“I don´t.  
In fact, I always only compare myself to you. I mean, yeah, I wanted to become like Shiro when it comes to fighting. I always tried to be as nice as Hunk, which is actually impossible, I wanted to be as smart as Pidge, but I never compared myself to them.   
Because nobody told me I had to.”

Lance paused, as he took a deep breath and honestly, Keith was just about to ask where this speech was going directly.  
Keith just did not understand where all this was leading to. Why was this talk suddenly about him?

“You see, it had always been my dream to become a fighter pilot. I wanted to see the stars, new worlds, galaxies and stuff.   
And I always believed that it would not be long until technology would be far enough to make this dream possible.  
And for that I tried to be the very best. I would just need time to adapt to everything new, even if I did not have the best grades right from the get go.

And then, there was you.   
And it was you who stole the place I was about to get in fighter class. So I was reduced to Cargo pilot.  
So I challenged you. I tried to become as good as you. As everything seemed to come natural to you.   
When you left I thought it was the best day of my life, because now I would become a fighter pilot. But - you know Iversion.”

Lance´s turned his head to face the ground and Keith was actually speechless.

Not because of this. Keith already knew all that and he could guess what was about to come.

But, no matter how many times he had asked Hunk about it, the yellow paladin had never explained to Keith why Lance was so unstoppable when it came to fighting Keith.  
And yeah, he had known that Lance had become a fighter pilot because Keith had dropped out of the Garrison.   
But he never expected that whatever he was about to guess that Lance would tell him, was actually wrong.

“You know, when my father died, my family was in shambles. My mom could not keep up with work and being there for us, so she gave us into the hands of someone else for as long as needed.  
That person was our uncle.   
And that uncle was Iversion.”

Keith blinked once, then twice. Did he just really hear that? Was this his imagination?  
Iversion?  
Lance seemed to have noticed Keith´s confusion as he laughed a little and then continued. 

“Yeah, unbelievable, right? That guy practically raised me until I became a teenager and my mom finally got some control of our life.  
My older brothers started working and helped her as much as possible and I wanted to do so, too.  
But my whole family did not want me to work at the car shop.

They wanted me to live my dream.  
I guess, without our connection to Iverson, I would never have made it to the Garrison.

But of course he could not take me as one of his favorite students or something, since he was in charge of the whole school and I never lived up to his expectations, anyway.

In fact, he always wanted me to be you.  
That always became obvious when he was angry. So, yeah. I guess that´s it. I owe him more than I could ever give him back. So yeah, I gave up. Because I cannot live up to that ultimate expectation. I cannot be you, Keith!”

Keith continued to stare at Lance, but the new family information about Lance needed to be processed, so after a while he could not even see the brunette anymore.  
“How did he compare us, exactly?”, Keith finally asked.

Lance laughed at that.   
“Oh, the usual, you know? Like ´remember the only reason that you are here is because the best pilot of our class had a discipline issue and flunked out.´ Stuff like that.”

“How can you still laugh at that?”, suddenly, Keith had heard enough. The anger was boiling hot inside of him and he felt how his fingers clenched tightly into his own flesh. How didn´t he notice the change in his own mood sooner?

Because now he knew. Lance really had given up. At least the small fights in his life.  
But, he had to keep going. Because, as Keith suspected, Lance took it as his duty to move forward. He had this responsibility, because he believed he owed it to Iversion. He owed it to his family.

“How could I not? The guy he wanted me to be, actually punched him in the face. And that only because he was generous. He surely would have aimed at something else, otherwise.  
Something that would really hurt.   
My uncle told me all about it.”   
Lance started to chuckle again and Keith, no matter how angry he had been, just remembered why he was kicked out again.

And for some unknown reason to him, Lance´s careless laugh calmed him down.  
And, probably for the same reason, Keith felt the urge to laugh along. But he managed to stop himself from it.  
Wasn´t this a serious topic? 

“Can I say something, Lance? I mean, I know you heard it enough times already, but how about you stop interrupting your training just to talk, flirt or brag?”  
Keith was being careful here.   
He was not trying to interrupt the suddenly comfortable atmosphere so soon. But he was sure, Lance would grow so much, if he just solely focused on training.

If he just tried.

“Not, because you are not allowed to have fun, but – if you really want to improve, you need to focus on your goals like you do when you train alone, so -   
I have watched you train for quite some time now. When you truly are focused, you fight like some sort of professional.  
It looks as though you are dancing -”  
Keith stumbled over his last words. Was it really alright to tell a guy that he looked graceful while fighting?

“You really think I look like I am dancing? Really?”, Lance dared to grin at Keith, and the questioned guy bit his lip in annoyance.  
“Don´t ruin it, Lance.”  
“Hey, it was you who started saying that. But, I have to admit, I have no idea whether I am capable of doing so in front of other people, you know.

Heck, people told me I was a good dancer once. Maybe because I rarely talk while dancing.  
You know what, I could try. But only here.”, Lance smiled to himself as he stared into nothingness.  
Keith waited again. Waited for another couple of words and this time, he was not disappointed.   
“And nobody is allowed to watch.  
Except for you, though.

I embarrassed myself enough in front of you. There is no difference or harm in letting you watch any further.  
I could adapt to audiences, too, perhaps.  
How about it?”, Lance seemed like he was talking to himself and reconsidering his options. But the last question he asked directly and Keith could not help but be a little bit surprised.   
Lance was offering him to be his special guest, after all.  
This was a one time chance, so Keith nodded and reached out his hand for Lance to take it.

The blue paladin only grinned in amusement as he grabbed his hand.

 

\-------------------------------

 

And that was how Lance and Keith started training together.   
Okay, Keith became Lance´s mentor, more or less. At least in cases where Lance had to adapt to audiences and Keith instructed him in methods to blend them out.

Keith however, asked Lance for advice in other aspects, which at the first time, took the brunette by surprise.  
Of course it had gotten to his head at some point, but after failing most of the training sequences because of the following confidence burst, Lance finally started working on his concentration.

For this kind of training, both of them skipped group training which were assigned by Allura in the mornings.   
Needless to say, Allura was furious with both of them. Especially since they started failing easy sessions, too.  
In addition, them being tired all the time caused a few – incidences.

During the bonding exercises, for example, they often fell asleep.  
Even Lance. The mere fact that he was being watched pushed enormous pressure on him.  
It took time. It took a lot of time.

But eventually, Lance started to grow kind of comfortable around Keith.  
It was a great help that Keith´s patience was endless for once .  
This concentration, as however, took quite the toll on the red paladin, but he knew that criticizing Lance was not exactly what the brunette needed.

Despite all their efforts, though, Keith started wondering what their training sessions were worth exactly.  
Since Lance started improving again, neither of them was able to show off their improvements in front of the others. And for some reason, the universe decided to take a break on all those battles they had been fighting occasionally until now.  
Plus, with Allura watching they had no opportunity to get Lance to train piloting blue.

Still, Keith felt so much pride, the more efficient Lance´s training got.

Lance raised from level 12, which he had been barely able to pass, to level 23 again. He was still stiff, but they were working on it.   
Though, Lance had almost died in smugness as he saw how Keith barely reached level 10, even after one week of constant training in different terrains, while his own worst was two levels ahead.

One day, he could not watch Keith fail any longer and showed him some tips and tricks.  
After that Keith tried to imitate Lance´s dancing style and again, Lance had laughed like someone who was watching a cute cat video on YouTube.

When Keith explained why he was moving in such a weird way, Lance for the first time noticed that he was indeed holding himself back.  
The improvement grew even further from there.  
Keith was not even ashamed that Lance was so much better than him in the terrain field, while he himself barely exceeded the gladiator fights. He even had to admit, that he got better by mimicking Lance´s smooth fighting style.

The bond that formed due to the training made them even stronger.  
Also, Keith was not training in the afternoon anymore.   
He would be too exhausted after that to train with Lance. So he decided to keep Lance company on his patrol routines, instead.  
The one´s Hunk had mentioned weeks prior. Though he had not noticed that it was something Lance consciously did.   
Even now, no matter how exhausted he himself felt. 

The fact that Keith stopped his training and was tired all the time, however, gave the rest of team Voltron the impression that Keith was slacking of.   
They were obviously unsure what to make of it.   
Were they not ready to believe what Keith had told them weeks ago.  
Yet.

\---------------------------

 

Until the day that one of their missions did not go as planned.

It was supposed to be an easy mission. This time they were supposed to find Intel on some planet the Galra had harvested.  
Now the planet was about to collapse. So the Galra had left, but some of their stations were still intact.

Naturally, this was not the first encounter the paladins had with a dying planet or solar system.  
But, as soon as the Galra had noticed that Voltron was with that planet, the nearest fleet had started attacking.  
Along with a robeast, as Hunk called them.

It was only a smaller one, so they would not necessarily need Voltron, they hoped. So Lance, Hunk and Shiro were holding it off from the castle, trying to defeat it.  
Allura and Coran were relying in the castle defenses to hold of the entire fleet on their own.  
Keith and Pidge were trying to collect the data on the former Galra base.

However, Coran´s calculations on the life span of the planet had not been entirely correct.  
In fact, the planet was about to collapse in minutes only.  
And since Pidge refused to leave without the data and was therefore as blind as Keith, when it came to the explosions around them and Coran and Allura occupied with the Galra fleet,  
it was Hunk who noticed something was up.

Up until this point, they had been fine. They were almost having fun and Lance shouting out about all their small victories in delight was not interfering with the fight.  
“Guys? I think the planet is collapsing! No- it is definitely collapsing!”, Hunk stuttered through the intercoms. 

This, however caused Shiro to turn his lion around to follow the yellow paladin´s gaze.  
And Lance? Lance had been too focused on his own cheers to notice the shift in behavior as he crashed into the black lion. 

And then, everything happened in a blast.   
Shiro yelled. His lion was floating through the lack of gravity.  
Lance tried to apologize as he turned his lion around.   
Than a light blinded him.   
The blue lion was hit with a blast that would barely have missed the black lion´s former position.

“LANCE!”, Hunk shouted, Shiro cursed under his breath, as a noise was interrupting the connection to Lance´s helmet.  
“-uy- Don´t worry!- ou- of- chrrr- ission. -   
“Lance? Can you hear me?”, Allura interfered. She was seemingly stressed and tense. But was holding up fine, otherwise.  
“Y-yeah. I – chrr- I think the intercom is working again.  
Seems like my lion is lights out, though. She used up all of her defenses to save me. So I am fine. But I won´t be for long, if I stay here!”, Lance answered. His breathing was heavy and his voice was cracking slightly.

Lance could practically see Hunk smiling brightly at the fact that Lance was alright.  
Well, more or less.  
“Hunk! Bring the blue lion back to it´s hangar. As long as it is out of commission, it cannot fight!   
Come back as soon as possible!”, Shiro shouted over the intercom.

Needless to say, Lance felt his pride subsiding. This was alone his fault. If it had been him trying to save one of the others, it would have been one thing. But again, he had been caught of guard.  
What would Keith say, again?  
This was him messing up because he had only been focused on small victories.

Lance left blue, right after Hunk had brought him back to the castle.  
Now what?   
He should probably head of to Allura and keep helping her with the castle defenses. There was this drone he could still be fighting with, right?

Shame flooded his mind. But there was no time for that. Until he suddenly heard the screaming over the intercoms and suddenly he found himself running towards the control room.

“Allura!!! Shiro! The planet is collapsing! More precisely, the Galra station is too!  
Pidge was hit by something! She´s unconscious! I need help, immediately!”

Lance was heaving as he finally reached Allura´s position. She was sweating bullets in concentration.   
“Keith! Here is Allura! Get Pidge out of there! Get back to your lions and come back to us!”

“That is what I want to do, Allura! But Pidge is not answering! She won´t be able to pilot the green lion that way! If we manage to get out of here, that is!  
I- I don´t know what to do. The doors are closed and I lost my bayard on the other side of this giant metal thing that hit Pidge!”  
“Hold on tight, Keith! I´ll rescue you!”, Shiro answered with a determined voice, but Allura stopped him mid-sentence. 

“No! You stay were you are! The blue lion is already out of commission! You cannot leave Hunk alone to fight that robeast!”

“The blue lion is out? What is with Lance? Is he alright?”, Keith suddenly sounded worried and Allura glanced at Lance who was standing right in front of her.  
“He is alright, Keith. He is with me, right now.”

Lance stared at her as he listened to the conversation. What was he waiting for? He was the only one available right now. Why was he not heading down there in an instant right now?  
Keith needed him, right?  
But he just messed up big time. He hurt his lion, because he was too occupied with-

“Send him down here, then!”  
“Are you nuts, Keith? Lance does not have a lion! The planet is collapsing! I cannot risk loose the blue paladin.”  
“If you don´t risk it, then two other paladins will die! Trust him, princess!”  
“I- I- wait. Were did he go?”  
“Allura? What are you talking about? Lance? Are you there? Can you here me?”

“Loud and clear, Keith.”, Lance´s mind was blank. He was not thinking anymore. At the same time it seemed, his mind was as clear as ever.

“Lance?! What are you doing there?”, Allura shouted in pure anger, but Lance did not hear her.  
He only knew one voice he was able to trust right now.   
And that was Keith´s.

“What did he do, princess?”, Keith shouted and Allura´s fury was almost visible as she shouted back.  
“He took my cruiser! He doesn´t even know how to use it! He should at least have taken one of the escape pots to go down there!”  
Her voice was breaking, the same way it always did when something did not go according to plan.  
A small silence followed as Allura wanted to shout at Lance again, but Keith shut her up. With only one word.  
“Good.”

The thing about collapsing planets was, that you never knew from which side the rocks came. Parts of the planet, no matter if water, lava, ice, earth, trees or whatever had still been at the planet, was aiming at Lance.  
And Allura who was watching with a great amount of anxiety waited for the impact, as Lance got closer to one of those giant rocks.

As he jumped of his vehicle and used his hands to flip himself off of it again, only to grab a hold of the vehicle once again.

He ducked under some sort of giant tree and sped up, down the planet.  
It did not take long until Lance landed on one part of the surface that still allowed him to land on.   
“Allura, I´ll send this thing back on autopilot. I cannot maneuver it through the acid, ice and the vines.”  
“Lance, wait!”, but Lance had already sent off the vehicle.  
Now there was no turning back.  
And boy, did he nail this parcour. 

If Lance had to guess, he would expect this situation to be a level 34 on the training deck.  
But, without him needing to blast anyone, since the Galra had already left the planet.  
So, level 32 would probably be more accurate.

“Lance, be careful!”, Allura shouted through the intercoms. She had obviously given up on shouting at him.  
Little did he know, that Allura was watching him as much as possible through the vision, she could produce with the castle, while she was still trying to hold of the Galra fleet.

“Lance? Is Lance alright? What is happening down there?”, hunk interrupted and was instantly scolded by Shiro. “Hunk! Focus!”

But it was not Allura who answered. Neither was it Keith, to her surprise.  
It was Coran.  
“Don´t you worry, Hunk. Lance should be fine. I would say the terrain he is facing is about Level 32, if you count the fact that Lance is not being attacked by guns or gladiators.  
The terrain though is an Omega 12 with addition of beta 90. “

“This is a what?”, Allura asked in defeat and Hunk as well seemed confused as he asked with a “what now?”

“You know. The terrain training deck Lance is attending is made to train him for this kind of situation.”, Coran explained but Allura only stopped in her tracks, causing the castle to almost be hit by a Galra ship.

“Lance is WHAT?”, she almost shouted, but Coran was only raising his eyebrows.   
“You didn´t know? Keith told you all about it, didn´t he?”

“But that- that-   
Even if that was true, Coran! There is no way Lance would be able to beat a le-”  
But she stopped right there as she heard Lance breathing in slowly as he focused on the vines right in front of them.

Each of them was close to the acid, the ice was already melting.  
He needed this time to adjust to the terrain – than he headed of.   
Fast as lightning, gracious as a dancer he hid under vines that were already covered in acid.  
He ducked away from the rain that erupted as lava from the ground.  
He jumped of the ice that was about to disappear and found himself save and sound on exploding rocks.

And what Allura also noticed, interrupted her concentration for good.  
Because Lance had his eyes closed and was relying on his ears. He must have stopped their connection altogether then.  
All that he could dance through all of this, until he finally reached the Galra station, which was about to sink into the mix of acid and Lava.  
The whole outer area was corrupted of vines and Lance needed to find a way in, as he jumped off of the last ice shell he had been standing on.  
Only to blast a hole into the wall.

In front of him was Keith.   
“Lance?”, Allura heard over the intercom, but was still shocked from what she had just witnessed.  
“Lance! We need to get out of here. The lions are on the control deck of this ship!  
We need to get out of here or else...”  
“Keith! Were is your bayard?”   
Silence was following, so Keith must have shown him something, then another blast was to be heard.  
“Thanks, Lance. I´ll carry Pidge. We need to get through that door. It closed as we got in here. I thought Pidge could open it up later, but now she is unconscious and this isn´t simply solved with a hand print, like usual.  
And I doubt my sword will be enough.”

“Alright, I´ll try.” Another blast was heard, but nobody seemed to be cheering in relief.   
“The door has a barrier in front of it? Oh, come on!”, Allura heard Lance´s voice echoing through Keith´s intercom.

“The code is Galra. Lance, can you read it?”, Keith asked and Allura, surprised by the question was almost about to shout that Lance could not.  
On the other hand, she stopped herself from yelling. She had underestimated Lance once, she would wait for what was about to happen now.

“A little. I now the symbols, but I have trouble with the wordings. Let me try it.   
You know, the words and grammar are actually kind of similar to german.   
I think I can do it. Pidge always rambles on how to solve these kind of things. If I recall it correctly, I-   
it´s open.”

And really, Allura could hear a door opening.  
Was this a dream? Lance had been listening to all that what Pidge had been rambling about?  
He did remember all of it?  
He, what else did he hide from them?

“Allura? We might have not thought this through, correctly. Lance might be here now, but I doubt he can fly the green lion?!”, Shiro spoke up.  
He as well seemed more than confused and irritated by what was happening down there.

But he was interrupted by mentioned lion, who roared as Lance was piloting her out of the ruins that were collapsing.  
Followed tight, by the red lion.

The green paladin is a person of great intellect.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance is gone  
> Hunk feels bad  
> Matt is back  
> Shiro is confused  
> Allura is sorry  
> Pidge is sass and only one question stays: Where the hell is coran?????????

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it took more than a week and this chapter is not as long as it was supposed to be, but I think this should do.  
> Let´s just say we are about to get something that the fandom has been discussing for season 3 in the next chapte (hopefully).

The fight was over.   
But most of the paladins were still fighting with themselves, while Pidge was trying to fight her injuries in the healing pot.  
So-   
Each of them confused about what had happened. Little to no progress as to why things had turned out like this torturing them in their minds.   
They were still waiting for an explanation. They´ve already waited for hours.

Hunk was trying to process how little he had known about his best friend.   
He, since he was Hunk, had a few suspicions about him, of course. He had known Lance was easily homesick, even at the Garrison.   
And he knew to better leave Lance alone when he was sad, since Lance would only feel guilty for causing him worry.  
(They once had a talk about it and Hunk had agreed to leave Lance alone, as long as he returned within the next one and a half hours.   
It had been a long talk and a very stubborn way of forcing their will on to each other, but the compromise stuck.)

He still had questions.   
This only explained why Lance disappeared at night on the castle, as to how Keith had told them weeks ago. How had he not noticed Lance´s absence whenever he had searched for him for a bro-night?  
However, it did not explain why Lance had been awake at night at the Garrison, too.

Why did Hunk never suspect anything?

Even if he had, Lance always knew how to avoid uncomfortable subjects. Lance always knew how to keep secrets.  
That much Hunk knew by now. But it had never bothered him as much as it did now.  
He was his best friend, was he not? Why did Lance keep secrets from him?

Shiro had different questions. He had never been that close to Lance, he was aware of that.  
Still, being the leader required not only patience and focus, but also knowledge about his comrades.   
And Lance fell under the ´special supervision´ category non the less.

Allura was still trying to understand how she could have underestimated the blue paladin to such an extent.   
She had watched him fight.   
She had seen him succeed in a way, she had never considered possible for him.  
And the only people who had known were Coran. And Keith.

She glanced over her shoulder at Pidge who was still in the healing pod.   
What would she say, if they told her how Lance had piloted green? Would she even believe them? 

And Keith?  
Keith was still sitting in his room, staring at his knife, without actually paying it any attention.

...

They had not thought this far.  
Yeah, Keith had wanted Lance to come down to help, but now that they were standing in front of the giant robotic lions, he noticed which part of the plan would probably fail.  
It were only seconds that he hesitated, that he let the thoughts captivate him.

He remembered that lions were able to be carried by other lions. The same way, Shiro had done with his lion as he had tried to take on Zarkon all by himself.  
But would this still be possible with the addition of gravity?  
Also they would be way slower and it would be impossible to dodge all the rocks and acid and lava and – all that crap floating around.

He already trailed of with his thoughts. Remembered how he was able to pilot the black lion in order to save Shiro. But that had been an exception.  
Only made, because the black lion noticed their paladin was in danger.  
Wait, could it be that they could do the same again? To save Pidge?   
But that meant, Lance would have to do it. Or else they could not pilot the red lion. The brief thought of Lance piloting the red lion crossed his mind.  
No, that would not make any sense. Keith could not pilot green, that was for sure.  
Keith was at a loss. His doubts and hesitation were holding him back. His head in charge for once.  
Was he not the red paladin? Should he not go with his instincts?

His instincts told him to confide in Lance.

Suddenly the green lion awoke, right in front of Lance. Lance just stood there, waiting with a smile, as if he had waited for this to happen.  
As if he had known the green lion would recognize him.  
“Hey there, cutie. Did you miss me?”

Keith was left in the dust in surprise as the green lion roared in delight, the wind caused by it clashing with his hair. But she also seemed to question the sight of their original paladin out of consciousness.  
“Don´t worry, we´ll bring her back. May I pilot the three of us out of here?”  
The green lion opened up in response.  
Lance smiled as he fondly looked at the gorgeous lion. He had always loved their design. 

And then he kept going forwards.  
“We need to hurry, Keith. Take Pidge with you. You are the better pilot. I don´t want to damage her wounds any further.”

It was as if Lance had already expected something to go oh so entirely wrong.   
So- so wrong.  
They managed to get off of the planet.  
They managed to somehow get back to the others, their surprise adding oil to Lance´s confidence, which might have been the wrong move in their part.

That one slice of thought had been enough for his concentration to break and for the tractor beam to catch the green lion.  
It started pulling in almost instantly and Lance was already too close to the Galra ship to be saved.

In the blink of an eye, Lance disappeared inside of the giant ship.

Keith instantly turned around to fight the Galra, but it was already out of reach. They had opened the wormhole only seconds after.

Lance - The green lion. Gone.

...

And now here he was. Sitting in his room. Not even able to locate Lance or the green lion, because of the new technique the Galra had found to block out signals.  
Pidge´s awakening would be their only hope.

There he had thought it was finally Lance´s time to shine.   
He had thought, now everything would be alright. Especially since Lance had managed to perform his skills despite the audience.  
Or was it because he had concentrated on Keith´s voice? Blocking out everyone else?

However, this was not the time for him to dream of such things. He had to do something, so Keith decided to go for the control room.  
Maybe he could find a way to connect to Lance.  
Lance would not give up without a fight, right? But then again... This were too many Galra at once.

Keith had watched Lance train, he had tried to understand him in every way possible.  
It might be true that he still did not know everything, like he wanted.  
But he knew Lance´s abilities. He had trained with him, after all. 

Even Lance had limits. Sometimes numbers of week soldiers were stronger than one soldier with skill.

 

\-------------------------------------

*8 hours prior *

 

“Damn it! Green! Let´s get out of here!”  
It was useless. The green lion was unable to move. The tractor beam taking control of her systems.  
“Particle barrier up! Let´s blast trough this ship!”, he shouted in panic.

This was not how he had imagined their escape happening.  
This was not good in any way,

Green did what she was told, but it was not enough. Lance was not it´s original paladin. He could pilot green, but his connection was not strong enough to do any more than that.

So he tried to deepen their connection.   
He tried to connect with her through his mind. Through thinking of Pidge and what she would do and of course green responded to that through a purr.

“Can you please help me fight off those Galra?”, he said, trying to think of anything. But there was nothing he could do.   
If he could blast through the beam now, it´s source was most likely to explode and -

Green could sense something that felt like Pidge, Lance knew it. He felt it through her sensors.  
And for a moment he thought she had come to his rescue.  
But something was different. Something was completely off about the feeling.  
It was more mature of an aura.

And then Lance knew what this was.  
Or else … who this was. 

There must be prisoners on this ship. And in an instant, any thought of escape vanished from his mind.   
Lance totally had to help them! Destroying the ship was off bounds now.  
He had to take the Galra soldiers out by himself. He could see them gathering around the lion as he looked towards the hangar the tractor beam had captured him in.

“Wait here for me green, alright?”

The green lion responded with a purr and opened her mouth for Lance to leave her.  
Lance braced himself as he followed suit and was greeted immediately by robotic Galra soldiers.  
At least he would not have to kill anyone yet, he sighed in relief.

This was what Lance was used to. This was what he had trained for since he went to the Garrison.  
This was his time to shine.

He had to save Matt. For Pidge.

 

\---------------------------------

 

Keith waited. Loosing his patience every tick he waited. Allura had tried to calm him down earlier. She had told him to wait for Pidge to wake up.

But Keith knew, that even if Pidge woke up in the next couple of hours, she would most likely ask questions herself.

Every second they waited was one second wasted. They had to rescue Lance.   
If Lance had been able to fight of the Galra by himself, he would be back already. But the hours were passing by.   
One by one.

And Lance had not returned. And Pidge was still asleep.

That was until a loud roar interrupted his thoughts. He almost tripped as he went to the window of the control room to see the green lion approaching.

“Guys? GUYS! THE GREEN LION IS BACK!”  
He did not even notice he was shouting as everybody made their way towards his position.  
They stared at green in disbelieve. But at the same time, smiles erupted in their faces, as they exchanged glances in delight and relief.  
Cheering and laughter were the responses.

Instantly, they made their way towards green´s hangar.  
It felt like hours that the green lion landed. Like a hero returning to the villager she just saved.  
The only shadow dimming the light being the absence of their paladin.

 

But it was not Lance who left the giant lion. And the sight alone let their smiles drop.  
Especially Shiro´s.

“Matt? MATT!”, he shouted the guys name in disbelieve. He was like an almost exact replica of Pidge.  
Small, skinny, the most ridiculous of hair... Only the glasses were missing.   
And if Pidge was not in the healing pod right now, Keith would have said he had more wounds.

Shiro sprinted towards him. The surpris corrupting his thoughts and distracting him from the person they had originally been looking for.  
Keith, however was still waiting for the guy in a blue paladin suit.

Matt stumbled towards Shiro and fell into his arms, while holding his side. A big, fresh wound pulling at his consciousness.

The missing past few hours suddenly felt so evident, as Matt stared at the ground, his eyes not caring to focus.

“Lance! They got Lance!”, he mumbled. “He sacrificed himself to save us!”  
Just as he said that, Keith noticed more people leaving the green lion. All of them injured, but their relieved sighs proving the worth of their rescue.

Still. Keith felt sick to his stomach.

Lance could still be in there right? But Matt already told them he sacrificed himself. Did this mean Lance was not here? Was he just as injured as these people? Or was he - gone?

It also felt off that this kid was talking about Lance as if they were some kind of childhood friends.

“We need to save him! You need to hurry! Form Voltron!”, a little kid coughed out, ignoring the way the wound on their throat was widening with each breath.

Multiple voices, broken ones, heavy ones, agreed with them.

And the rest of the paladins could not stop staring in disbelieve at their determined words.  
One word being the most intimidating of all, repeating over and over, louder and louder.  
His name.  
Lance.

Allura opened her mouth to say something, but what should she say?

“We can´t. We cannot form Voltron. The blue lion is still out of commission after our last battle!”, she said as loud as possible, but her voice was breaking.

Everyone was staring at her as if she had declared they were thirsty people in the desert rejected to get water.   
The prisoners were of different planets. Male, female, in between, nonbinary, adults, children, babies, old people.  
Humans, olkari, balmeran. Some of each culture or planet they had ever encountered.   
Galra.  
They looked like the thought of loosing Lance equaled loosing hope.

It broke Keith´s heart to see them like this.   
The same broken way he felt since Lance was gone. 

“Then get it back to work! Some of you are engineers right? The yellow guy, there. You must be Hunk, right?  
You are an engineer! You should be able to fix it.   
Where is my sister? Is she still healing? She is the smartest person I know. Wake her up, we need to get him out of there!”  
Matt almost shouted at Shiro, wile breaking down again as his wound pinned him down again.

His sudden outburst making the paladins of Voltron stumble.

“W-we cannot wake her up yet! She´s, she´s still injured! Waking her up could damage her -”, Coran started to interrupt. Even he was surprised by the rough greeting and obviously, he was not the only one.

“Could you- could you please tell us what happened first?”, Allura kindly asked, ignoring the simple fact that a stranger was ordering her what to do.  
“What happen-? We do not have time for that! They are going to torture him! They are probably doing that right now!

Or they will make him face the gladiator! This is no game like the time when Shiro became the champion!   
This is no fair fight! This is an execution!”  
They are going to make him face a robeast!, Matt exclaimed and a shiver went down Keith´s spine.  
Again, he was not the only one.

A robeast. The things they only defeated with Voltron.   
Lance could never defeat it by himself. He could not even do that with blue by his side. He was all alone now.   
His death certain. Only Minutes from now. Seconds perhaps.

“Allura! We cannot wait any longer! We need to save him!”, Keith yelled over the noises which started to fill the room.

It was Hunk who looked at him questioningly. Keith puzzled expression had reminded him of a very similar situation.  
“Weren´t you the one who suggested we should not rescue Allura, when she had sacrificed herself for Shiro?!”

Silence fell over the room, as Keith glanced at Allura who seemed hurt by the revelation, but also curious.   
“That- That was different. Allura had sacrificed herself to rescue Voltron! We were about to get into the headquarters of Zarkon!   
The place most dangerous for us to enter!  
One wrong move and we would have lost the only hope of the universe for good.   
We are talking about Lance right now. He is essential for Voltron.”

He did not dare say anything else.   
Keith had never had a family besides Shiro and eventually his father who disappeared when he was still a child.  
Until Voltron happened and Keith had managed to find Hunk and Pidge and Allura and Coran. Maybe he would have counted Lance, too, if the guy had not despised him from the start.

Perhaps it was Keith´s decision to get closer to Lance in the process of weeks. But still, Lance had managed to become important to him.  
Closer than team Voltron. Just as close as Shiro, but in a different way.

Allura nodded in understanding. But sighed as a heavy thought crossed her mind. She frowned in sadness-  
“I have something to confess to you all.”, she said, but turned around to head for the control room as a sign for all of them to follow her.

Keith exchanged a few glances with the others, but still followed her, even though Matt and the prisoners seemed to burn in anticipation.   
They were just as eager as Keith was to fight an entire fleet of Galra ships only to find Lance.

The walk towards the control room was quiet. The only sound being heavy steps on the metallic floor driving Keith nuts.

Finally they reached the control room again, as Allura sighed. She had probably tried to find the right words while going here, but was still unsure.

“I don´t think we should save him.”  
Gasps were heard and Matt and Keith were both about to shout in disagreement, but Allura already continued.

“It´s not like I don´t want to, you know. I just think we can´t. If Lance really has to fight the robeast by now, we won´t make it in time.   
He would be killed instantly. I have seen Lance fight seriously for the first time, today.   
Plus, Voltron is not working right now. The blue lion is not functioning. Going there to fight without our most powerful weapon is a suicide mission. Not to mention that even a wormhole jump won´t be fast enough.  
It is just impossible. If- if the green lion was still there we would head of instantly, to be honest. But Lance is- paladins are replaceable. “

Keith was almost screaming, when a sob stopped him. Allura was crying.   
Her own decision already forcing her to regret every word. 

This was just as hard on her as it was on the others. And suddenly Keith could guess why they were supposed to go for the control room.  
That way nobody would be able to just grab a lion and head of, unnoticed.

“Believe me. I do not want this to happen. But- but we will find another blue paladin. I´ll do it myself if I have to.   
But this is- there is just no way.”

Again, silence filled the room. Until a tiny voice stepped in.   
Everyone turned around. Matt being the most shocked of course.   
Still covered in wounds the green paladin stared at them. Her eyes not visible through the reflection on her glasses.

“Replaceable my ass, princess.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are many things unknown to this point.  
> Things, you cannot see while only looking at the surface. This is how Lance gets captured by Haggar and is rescued by Matt.  
> Matt has lived through the life of a fighting prisoner and the blue paladin might be their chance to escape.  
> But their riot has history, too.   
> Also - things might become a little bit complicated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry that it takes me so long for knew chapters to upload, but I am the type who only writes for fun - so
> 
> Well - here you go.  
> It still is not much and things might be confusing in this chapter, since this is more or less Matt´s version of the story and he does not exactly gives you a powerpoint presentation of what has happened to him until now.  
> He is buisy with their current escape plan, which is not exactly a plan.
> 
> I - might get to that later - hopefully.
> 
> Wow - I really am not thinking this through to the end, I hope it is still okay for you.
> 
> I´ll go as much with the flow as you do. 
> 
> This is so shallow - omg

* 8 hours prior *

Lance awoke in a total darkness.   
His side hurt like hell and his lungs burned from the dust he was slowly breathing in.  
He coughed and winced as the pain stabbed his insides.  
Where was he?

Oh right. He had been trying to fight the Galra soldiers and failed miserably.   
“Curse my confidence.”, he muttered to himself.

“You´re awake? Matt! Matt, come over here!”, a tiny voice said. Lance shook his head, who was talking to him?  
How could they see him? It was way too dark in here.  
Wait. His own eyes were closed. He should open them. So he did.   
Black.

Lance blinked. Then he blinked again. The memories slowly sinking in.  
Not only had they captured him.  
They had brought him into a cell, where Haggar had been asking him questions. Each question he had responded with a lie.  
Or tried to, at least.

He remembered the pain the magic had caused him for each denial. For each lie.  
He could still feel the screams that arose from his vocal chords whenever they had punished him with this purple quintessence stuff.

But he also remembered that at some point his mind had refused to work against it.   
He recognized the feeling of rejecting the fact that he had been tortured.  
Just thinking that one day all of this would be over, that the pain was only in his mind. Switching to the opposite whenever they punished him physically.  
This is only your body. This is not you.

This pain is not where your heart is, so it could be worse. 

After he had thought that, a certain numbness had settled in, corrupting his mind, forcing him to experience the pain as an outsider.

Lance shuddered at the thought of ignoring his feelings. Pretending they did not exist.   
Well, he sometimes experienced this with his self worth, too.

The torture had still been real and he was now paying the price for it, but he himself had been somewhere else.

His body and mind feeding him with illusions of him only watching the scene.   
Protecting him from the impact of the stabs and wounds.  
From the pain.

Lance groaned in mentioned pain as he tried to sit up.   
“Hey, are you alright? You are the blue paladin, right? What is your name?”, a male voice asked.   
Lance recognized that voice.

“You! You were the one who saved me, right?”, he asked.  
But there was no answer. “Ehm. I guess you just gestured something to answer me, right? Sorry, but, I think I am blind now.”

He heard a gasp and felt how the tiny person holding him shuddered in empathy.

“I- I am so sorry. I did not realize that Haggar had used that... She must really hate you Voltron guys.”, the sad tone in his voice made Lance wonder what the guy was referring to.  
Of course. Haggar hated them with all she got. Wasn´t that obvious?  
.  
“If- if I had known she would just straight up use her magic on your mind, I would have gathered us way sooner. I must say, I am impressed you survived that magic stuff. Most people go crazy in the mere fraction of seconds when they face it.  
Becoming blind is – it´s not as bad as what could have happened.”

“Wait. Aren´t you guys prisoners? How come you saved me?”, Lance suddenly noticed and ignored the weird praise he was receiving.   
The last time he was praised, his own reaction to it had caused him to be tortured. Lance might be an idiot, but even he knew when he was about to cross a line.

It took the guy a moment to answer, but he soon seemed to reconsider everything Lance must have been through and decided he was trustworthy enough for whatever he was about to say.

“We are. But we found a way out of the cells month´s ago. We only get out to pry on the guards, though. Get more food, stuff like that to ensure we survive another day.

We- we do not exactly know how to get off of this ship. Otherwise we would have started a riot already.   
But – now that you and your lion have arrived, we thought we might have a chance to escape. We are hiding in a disclosed area right now, to get to your lion.”

Lance slowly breathed in and ignored how it caused an itching in his chest.   
“This is not exactly my lion. It belongs to your sister, Matt.”, he grinned, though it felt weird to do that while he could not see anything himself.

Again, silence greeted him, but he felt the shock radiating from the guy in front of him.  
“You know Katie? How is she? What- how did she get a lion? Why are you-”, the guy stopped. He was unable to ramble on as the questions seemed to overflow and overlap in his mind.  
The emotions colliding.   
Worry shifting into more.  
Pride, fear and hope. Terror at the thought that Katie was endangering herself for the sake of the universe as a paladin of Voltron. 

Lance knew that, not because Matt said it. But it was what he felt himself, whenever he looked at her.

“We call her Pidge now. She is-  
she is truly amazing. She is the smartest person I know. She could fight and win against each of us just by knowing us and our fighting styles.

She hacked herself into the Garrison system only to find evidence of what had truly happened on the kerberos mission.  
She made a device to get the information directly from the planet, when she was kicked out.  
She went so far to cut her hair and pretend to be a guy to get into the Garrison again.

Whenever something with the castle or the lions is wrong, she always knows the answer.. she.”

“Please, stop.”, the guy said, but Lance could hear the smile in his voice.  
“You- you should stop talking.”  
Lance nodded slightly. He could feel his strength leaving him. His own voice low and heavy and quiet. 

Though, the numbness was still present. 

That was why he knew he would not listen.  
“She- she´s hurt right now. But save. We´ve got these amazing healing pods on board of our castle ship thingy.  
She will be alright in a few hours.”, he added.

Then he started talking again. Still slowly, still heaving with the pain he was refusing to acknowledge, but proud and happy at the same time as he explained what they had done after the Kerberos mission.  
How they had found the blue lion.

How they got to the castle and formed Voltron for the first time. What their mission was.  
What he thought of his comrades.

Matt did not interrupt him, as he told them about how Shiro became their leader, despite his PTSD.  
How he admired him for it and how amazed he was that the guy was still so calm, even though he had to fight his nightmares too.

Lance felt how Matt resonated to his explanation, but did not mention it any further.

He told them about his best friend Hunk. The awesome engineer and cook. Who was all about repairing.  
Not just metallic machines. But hearts and minds. Physically as well as mentally.

He told them about Allura, how she always tried to do the right thing. How her decisions might be based on her emotions sometimes, but how calm and collected she was. Strict and fierce perhaps, but warm at heart.  
“She reminds me of my mother, sometimes.”, he added and even laughed at the comparison.  
But the laugh forced him to cough again.

“Though I´d choose my mother over her anytime.”

He rambled on about Coran. How the guy had helped him figure out who he was. Lance told them that he was Altean. Or at least partly.  
Though it did not really matter to him. He was still himself, he was certain of that.

After all, this was the same with Keith, who figured out he was Galra.  
Keith, who he had always looked up to. Who he had once tried to be, only to fail miserably. He told them about their rivalry, which changed as soon as Keith decided to join him and his training.

In short... he told them everything.  
He listened to every gasp, every shocked silence and every wave of emotion that collided with his own.

But he also felt himself weakening. Every word hurting his insides, though he had to tell them.  
He needed to tell them, to stay awake.  
He felt tired.

Still, he doubted that his injuries were bad enough to kill him. Not yet.

“So you mean... the Blade of Marmora really does exist?”, the tiny voice whispered.  
Lance laughed again.  
“Yeah, we did not trust them either at first, but they are good guys.”

“So that´s why they hold this Galra as prisoners.   
Matt, you know what this means, right? They told us the truth! We need to save those guys too!”, the child said with a determination that rivaled Keith´s when he was about to head into battle.

“I know. I cannot believe it. Tell the others, they need to get them out of their cells. If they are part of that organization, they should be good fighters.   
We might make it out of here with them as our backup.”, Matt agreed and suddenly Lance felt the person holding him standing up.  
The comfortable warmth leaving his body, as the child left to tell the other prisoners.

“Hey.. I don´t think I am in a state to pilot the green lion.  
But – she might let you do it. You are her paladins brother after all.”, Lance said, voice getting hoarse again and he felt Matt fidgeting in his position.

“I- I think I could try.  
Katie could do it- so- maybe I can too?” Matt was hesitating. The thought of Lance being unable to get them out of there had not exactly been on his mind yet. But Lance had explained the connection between paladin and lion to him.  
It seemed – complicated. It made their whole situation unnecessary risky.  
Not that it was not already.

 

\-------------------------------

 

After that, Lance was told to sleep for a while. Matt and the other prisoners needed to get the Galra prisoners free.

Not that it was impossible to get into their cells, but they had to be quick. The next roll call was in about an hour, the guards would come over and either see the prisoners gone or about to escape.  
Adding a little bit of bad luck and the guards would find out about the broken cell door or the tunnel in between the cells.

 

It was dark, almost as dark as the last time they had went here.  
The walls radiating a grayish purple shadow. The only light source were the purple glowing crystals on the walls.  
All in all, the cells reminded you of a cave.

Dirty, unhealthy and cold.

Matt remembered the coldness, the loneliness, the hunger and the pain from all those times he had lost to the gladiator.  
You were always isolated from your cell neighbors, even from your cell mates. 

Haggar´s magic prohibited conversations. But it was not impossible to get rid of her mental control.  
And that magic had always been the worst.

But still, Matt´s mind was somewhere else.

He himself had been controlled by Haggar´s power, by precisely that mind controlling magic. He had done everything to avoid people, action and rejection.  
He remembered that the physical pain had caused him to puke more than once. The mental invasion driving him crazy.

Haggar had believed he had been a spy for Voltron. She had forced him to tell her everything he knew.   
Though he never knew anything about the giant robot in the first place.

In these cells he had learned more about it in child stories.

Those, however, had only made his torture worse, since he suddenly gained more information. It made Haggar believe he was getting insider information.

Haggar´s torture sessions were usually not that long. It depended on your importance. Matt was quite important to her. But she lost interest after a while that her magic was not working the way she wanted it to.

When he had heard the ruckus in the hangar he had made sure to find out what was going on.  
Then he saw the lion and the blue paladin, who was overwhelmed by the sheer mass on soldiers fighting him.

He saw how Haggar appeared and ordered the soldiers to bring the paladin to the torture rooms.  
Matt was terrified, to tell the truth.  
There it was. A chance for them to escape, but for the first time Haggar confronted the guy directly. She did not wait for he guest. This proved to be a prisoner of great importance.

Matt had to be quick and quick he was, but it was way too long for how long Haggar´s sessions usually took.  
However, the session was still going on when he had managed to call and convince the other prisoners to help him and finally arrived at the chamber.

He had seen this lightning before, but even to him it had not been this blinding.  
This strong, this fierce.  
He had heard screams, but every time Haggar asked a question, there was no cry, no begging of release.

Matt had stared at the scene in horror.  
He saw a relaxed face in the head of danger. He saw a grin and a laugh of a guy who was being tortured.

But this magic was supposed to show him his worst fears. To show him how useless he was or convince him that he was, at least.  
Matt knew that it usually took month´s to live on after a session, but the guy in front of him seemed totally fine.  
And confident enough to still be cocky. Or was this guy this sure of himself?

It was certain, the guy had already gone nuts.

But he could see the paladin shaking his head, refusing to answer. Or did he just tell Haggar a lie?  
This guy was driving even Haggar angry, so he was not answering in a way that pleased her.

When she finally left in frustration, their time had come to break into the cells.

It went as smooth as they had planned. They knew this ship inside and out. They even knew how to avoid any kind of backup, the guards could have send in.

When Matt finally stepped inside and looked at the blue paladin, he gasped in shock at all the wounds covering his appearance.  
The light of the lightning had covered most of them before.  
But this was insane. 

The left side of his face was covered in a wound so deep, it looked like his head had burst in two.  
The armor covering his body looked like it exploded, ripping of parts of the guys skin.  
That some of his ribs and his right arm were broken was obvious.  
He was covered in bruises of all colors. Bleeding cuts everywhere it hurt the most.

How was this guy still conscious?

Matt stumbled at the smile in his direction, as the guy spoke his last words before he drifted away.  
“Thank´s Matt.”

How did this guy knew his name? Who was he? How was that the only thing he was saying? How did he stay awake until now? How the ever lasting f*ck could he smile in this kind of situation. Had he waited for him? How? What did he have to do with him?

Again, his wounds!

They were bad enough to let him loose consciousness. How come the mental ones were not bad enough to kill his self worth?

Haggar showed him his worst memories, right? His fears? His pain?  
Even if you had a great life, the intensity of even just loosing a toy in the past could drive you apples and bananas.

Matt stared at his own fingers as the present made itself clear to him again, while he stood in his old cell.   
The guy, Lance, was not crazy. He had casually told them everything there was to know about him in just a few minutes. Everything he cared about.

He was caring and kind. Talking about the greatness of his friends in front of a stranger that he was incapable of seeing.  
The trust Matt felt radiating from the guy was greater then what he had experienced until now. Even his sister had never trusted him to such an extend.

But Matt would never call it naive, as Lance did not complain about what had happened to him before. He was not crying out how cruel he had been treated, maybe he did not have the strength to.  
As if he had expected this before. Maybe even worse.

The guy was selfless. Though Matt did not know where that feeling came from.

There were things people like Lance never mention about themselves, their hopes, fears and past, especially when it came his own worth.  
But the guy was not doubting his worth, as Matt would have expected him to, after the session. The guy simply did not care about it.  
Though, he seemed to know who he was and what he deserved. 

The guy appeared to be balance in person and Matt was not the type to judge people so soon after meeting them for the first time.

Matt shook his head.  
This was not the time to – well – waste time thinking about a stranger. Especially with thoughts rambling on in his mind for hours, while he had the pressure of a time limit on his tracks.  
He had to talk to the blade of marmora. 

\---------------------------------

“We cannot help you.   
Voltron and the blade of marmora have been working together in the past already.  
It is true that we respect the prisoners that have managed to escape before.

But, the mere thought that one person alone is enough to change your mind about people you despised all of you life make us believe that it is not a wise decision to confide in you. How can we trust people who immediately trust a guy they have never met before?”, the Galra prisoner said.

Matt was about to say something, but he knew the guy had a point.

Thinking about this, why did he trust this guy? Was it just because of the fact that he knew his sister? Or that he had listened to those child stories in the cells?

Was it because the guy trusted him instantly, too?

Honestly? It was more than that. There was just this vibe around him. You felt save next to him.  
You just knew he was a trustworthy, loyal person.  
Interesting. Matt usually doubted anyone who was trying to get near to him. Even Shiro needed about half a year to get close to him. Though Shiro was a born leader an all.

Lance was different.

“I know, we seem a bit desperate. We should not be rushing this. But we are sure we can trust this person.  
He is a paladin of Voltron, which as you said, has worked with you before. He survived one of Haggar´s torture sessions without getting insane. He-”

One of the Galra prisoners shuddered at that.

“That is even more of a reason not to trust him!”, the first one replied angrily.   
Matt closed his mouth. That was probably true.

Someone who was not affected by dark magic- maybe he had a dark kind of personality himself.  
“How about you talk to him yourself?!  
You will see, he is a good guy. We can trust him. Though I doubt it really matters, as long as we can use his lion to escape.” Matt smiled at the guy.

Though, he still felt funny. His stomach was trusting the blue paladin, but these guys here -   
they were Galra after all.   
Well trained ones, as to what he remembered from the gladiator fights.

“We should hurry then. We do not have much time left, as I believe.”, the prisoner nodded after a short while of reconsidering.

Matt responded with the same gesture, until he turned to his comrades.   
People, who had helped him escape Haggar´s mind prison and gained his trust therefore.

The smallest one of them took a step forward. The guy, his name was Radiac, was a balmera. Matt had listened to him explaining what their planet and culture was like.  
Hell, that story explained very well, why he was still so kind and tried to understand everyone. It also explained why he was not judging those marmora people by their heritage.

Though he still had to explain to Matt where he learned to open a lock without breaking it.

Especially with these giant hands.

“It´s open. Let-s”

“Shhh!”, Matt instantly covered his mouth. There were footsteps to be heard. “We are running out of time! Hurry!”, he hissed in the direction of the Galra prisoners.

Knowing what Matt was referring to, they braced themselves for the incoming battle.  
As silent as possible, the group of eight people, five of them Galra, rushed over towards the door.  
The guards where too early.

The lack of roll call must have caused Haggar to send them. After all, she never was never told that the paladin had arrived at the prison cells.  
How did this slip Matt´s mind?

“Here they come!”, Matt whispered to himself and he felt the ´no – shit – sherlock` glances on his neck.

What a way to prove their trustworthyness. Matt already felt the regret and guilt.  
All their preparations had gone to waste in this single moment. His decision to get new comrades along the Galra suddenly seemed naive.

Now it was all or nothing.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No one else is dealing with your demons. Meaning maybe defeating them could be the beginning of your meaning, friend.  
> \- Kitchen Sink, twenty one pilots

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uff. Work!  
> So, I wanted to post this on Lance´s birthday already, but unfortunatetly I didn´t have the time. The. entire. damn. weekend.  
> Has been nice though. Lots of rain, friends from far away visiting, family and stuff.   
> (Even cake, for some reason XD Lance bless XD)
> 
> Finally I am back at the intended direction of this supposed-to-be-one-shot.  
> So, it probably won´t be so many chapters anymore. Maybe one or two.  
> Plus, I´ll try to finish everything until the forth of august. (Season 3 <333)  
> I´ll do my best. Thank you for your great support. I hope you like it :*

Lance was tired. So damn tired.   
That Matt had left to let him sleep was nice and all, but he was still worried. They were on a Galra ship.   
Since when was it possible for him to sleep here?

Not to mention the fact that Matt and a small group of other prisoners just left to save a bunch of Galra.  
How much time did they have until the guards were looking for them again?

How much time until someone would notice the ruckus they made in his own torture cell. How long until they would start the search for the missing blue paladin?

Lance gulped.   
Suddenly he was wide awake. He doubted anyone would ever be able to sleep in his situation.

He was about to destroy any chances for the prisoners to escape from here, was he not?

Lance rubbed at his eyes. It was useless.   
Just like him. He sighed as he tried to feel what the ground felt like. It was cold iron. Only warm on the parts he had heated with his own body warmth.

Though he did not want to know what this sticky hot stuff was that was covering his face and chest and even parts of the ground.

Not being able to see was nice – sometimes. 

Jokes on Haggar though. The witch totally thought she could make him a fool by showing him how he would loose all of his friends.  
Or how his family would die while he tried to be a hero. Or how worthless he was.

Admittedly, the visions were quite realistic with all the blood and feelings produced in his head. 

But Lance already knew he would be the death of his friends one day.   
He knew that, if his friends had the choice to save either him or the universe, nobody would need a second guess.  
And honestly? The universe was the right decision.

He was just a small ant in a giant world. How much worth could he have?

He was a failure, sure, he knew that. This knowledge did not need the images of disappointed aliens pointing at him and laughing at his mistakes.

He saw that everyday. He felt it every second of his life. If Haggar thought this was enough to break him, she could go and quiznack herself.

Lance´s insecurities were part of his past, present and future. He could deal with them on his own.   
He always did.   
And if someone thought they had to interfere with him, to make it better or worse, jokes on them.  
Long ago, he had made the decision to never let these thoughts corrupt his mind anymore.

That would be pathetic.   
His decision did not make the thoughts disappear, but Lance had already hit rock bottom once.

Haggar had reminded him of that time, too.   
But one thing was for sure, there was no way he would ever end up that far down again. He could not fall any further than he already did.  
And since he did survive his own worst moment, there was no way he would not survive this, somehow.   
Though this might be a lot worse than his usual down moments. But, there could always be worse. So he could deal with this.   
Well – hopefully.

Lance took a deep breath, causing the wounds on his chest to burn, as they were stretched against his lungs.  
Seven seconds inhale. Hold four seconds, breath out for seven.

This technique always calmed him down.   
Evened his breath.  
He was an idiot to let Haggars visions get him to do as much as think about his previous depression.  
If it could even be counted as such.   
Lance didn´t think this pathetic whining was worth being called something other people actually had to deal with, to fight against.  
Some barely managed, some won, others lost. His own moment didn´t need much of a fight. 

No.   
Lance had been the youngest in his family, that´s true. He was also always striving for attention, yes. But he also got his wanted attention.  
He had always been an unthankful child, as much as he remembered.  
Always noisy, always loud and obnoxious. But Lance had a great family. People who had always cared for him.

They probably did, still. Though he disappointed them again. And again and again.

Even if they never noticed him in his worst moments, they had always loved him.

Though being ignored and always hating his own personality had gotten him to want to kill himself, Lance knew that moment had been pathetic.

He had gotten defensive about himself and his feelings and started to blame others for it. The only thought keeping him alive was the anger.  
He had decided that he would not do the haters the favor and leave them. They did not deserve Lance to leave, if they really thought he was worthless.

Lance remembered that it took years for him to get out of that mind set.  
It took years for him to calm down and forget that rope on the ceiling in his room. 

It took time for him to forgive the others. It took way longer for him to forgive himself.

But he did it. After four years, he was finally free. He could make fun of others again, not only about himself.   
He had learned to live with himself.

And at one point he had realized that it did not matter anymore what others thought of him.   
In the end, it would be Lance, who had to live with himself for the rest of his life.   
Everyone else had a choice.

How did Lance forget about that, even just for a second.  
How could he have forgotten about it during past year. 

Sure, a lot had happened since then, but still. What did it matter that his teachers did not believe in him?  
What did it matter that he himself sometimes didn´t believe in the blue paladin.  
The replaceable one?

Right now he had the choice what to do with his life. And he decided to go and help others, so he would not be ashamed of being who he was anymore.  
And right now, he wanted to make sure Matt was alright.

That was the moment he opened his eyes one more time.

\----------------------------------------------

 

When the door slid open, the blade of Marmora did not even hesitate when they jumped forward, grabbing the robots by the neck, causing them to break in only a fraction of a second.

Matt was not even impressed.

He had seen them fight before. Even if their wounds were worse, simple robots were not even near their capabilities.  
“Hurry, we need to get to the lion.”

Matt almost stopped, as he followed them outside the floor.  
It didn´t even matter that more guards were on their way, or that their cover was blown. Matt´s mind was somewhere else.

“Were we not on our way to the blue paladin? Also, the other prisoners are still with him.  
We were hiding not far from the hangar. We need to get to them first.”, Matt frowned at his own words.

“That might be true, but we need a weapon strong enough to break through the ship, if we want to destroy it.”

Matt stared at him from the side. “What do you mean, destroy this ship?! Our main goal is to escape, first.”

Wasn´t this perfect? There they were again, fighting for their next move. Matt felt the mistrust in his gut. A low, disgusted sensation, really.

A thought hit his mind. These were still Galra, after all. Either they were making a really obvious move to steal the lion, or they were being honest and openly risked the life´s of dozens of innocent people who had already suffered more than they deserved.

He couldn´t even decide which one was worse.

But the answer was cut off, as even more robots appeared around the next corner. This were not only a few guards, this bordered the amount of people of an army.  
Matt turned around. Was this a bad scifi movie?  
More of them surrounded them from behind.

“Oh, man. This got to be a joke. The only thing missing is a vent or something like a garbage dumb for us to hide in. I mean, seriously?”

It was another cliché that waited for them.

“Matt? Over here.”, a voice suddenly screamed. A door was standing wide open and a broken figure was waving at him.   
“Lance? Are you crazy? What are you doing here? Wait? Aren´t you blind?”, Matt searched for one of the other prisoners, only to be greeted by nothingness.

“Ah, that. Everything is still a blurr. But it seems the blindness was just temporary. A little bit more of sleep and I´ll be as good as new.  
Oh and, I send the others to green, already. So-”

Matt was speechless. The guards and their weapons who were demanding them to surrender aside, Lance looked like a dead man.

His eyes were open, but they weren´t focusing, his arm was still broken at his side and holy crow, how did he manage to hold that giant gun with one hand?

“That is him?”, one of the Galra asked with a raised brow. “The – paladin?”

Matt opened his mouth to say something, but what was he supposed to say. It was obvious that Lance had come to help them.  
However, he was not exactly in a state to help anyone.

“He doesn´t look that strong to me. Are you sure he is a defender of the universe?”, the guy asked further, as finally the guards stopped demanding surrender and started attacking.

“Of course I am. I´ve seen him in Haggar´s torture chamber!”, Matt answered, as he launched forward, kicking one of the robots in their guts. A move that broke it apart, while each of the Marmora people took out one or two of the robots, simultaneously. 

“Are you sure he will be able to fight with us?”

“i´m- I´m not sure.”, Matt sighed in defeat. Why did he trust this broken man again?  
Was it really because he survived that torture chamber? Or was it because he knew his sister so well? And Shiro?  
It had been the first time he had heard about the champion again. The guy, who became a hero because he had saved him.

At least now he knew that Shiro was alright. 

That was the moment when he heard the shot. Matt turned around, as he noticed how close the laser was to his own face, only to hit one of the guards directly in the eye.

Matt hadn´t been fast enough to defend himself. And Lance- Lance must have noticed. And his shot had been so precise, Matt forgot to breath for a second, which also broke his focus on the fight.

Lance aimed again, his eyes still not focusing, but using muscle memory at the mentioned blurr his eyes were recognizing as enemies.  
Lance cursed to himself and Matt realized, the guy had missed his target. Or at least the exact point on it.  
Him shaking, only one arm available, his eyes a mess.   
And the thing he was cursing about was that he did not get his shot to the spot between the eyes.

Was he really unable to see clearly? 

At least, Matt himself would have trouble aiming this precise with well functioning eyes.  
And he had been called one of the best shots at the Garrison.

Matt started breathing again. This was not the time to let his mind wander. They had to make it out of here.  
Alive, please.

“Give us a second. We´ll be over there in a moment!”, Matt shouted, kicking the next robot in it´s gut, only for it to break.   
After all, Lance just showed them the door to an unsupervised floor, which seemed to lead towards, well, wherever they had been hiding.  
With the blade of marmora in front of him, fighting, Matt knew they would have his back.   
Even if he did not trust them, they had to escape, too.

It didn´t even take the Galra a second to follow him towards Lance´s position.  
Lance stumbled backwards, slowly, only to close the door with the arm of a robot Matt hadn´t even noticed before.   
Lance must have destroyed it´s owner along the way here.  
How many Galra did he fight in this state?  
And how did he find them? Well – the closed door should by them some time.

Anyways. Escape! “You guys need to run! Matt- try to pilot green as I told you to. I´ll open the hangar for you.”, Lance demanded, his breath hitching as he tried not to shake.

“Green? As in the green lion? Aren´t you the Blue paladin? You came with the green lion? But why?  
This is- this should not be possible. We-”, one of the Galra prisoners started, but she was interrupted by Lance´s hectic voice.

“Yeah, yeah. I know. But Green entrusted herself to me. She will do the same to Pidge´s brother.  
Now hurry!”

“But you cannot possibly believe you will manage to open the hangar by yourself! In the state you´re in?!”, the prisoner insisted.

“You know, a beautiful girl like you shouldn´t be so worried about a guy like me. Though I totally understand. It´s hard to miss a great shot like me ;))))).”

Matt saw how the girl rolled her eyes in annoyance. Matt knew, if the situation had been different, she might have laughed, but now she would just head towards the lion without a second thought for Lance.

And maybe that had been Lance´s plan all along. 

“Well, let´s leave then. The blue paladin can take care of himself.”, the other prisoner said, no hesitation mirrored in his actions as he already run off, his comrades hot on his heels.  
Only Matt stayed, looking at the hurt paladin once more.

“How do you intend to do this?”, he simply asked.

“You know, your sister taught me a lot. I told you, she is amazing. I don´t know much, but I should be able to open the hangar for you anyways.”

Matt shook his head. “I am not talking about the technical stuff. How do you intend to get out of here? If you stay-  
They´ll know what you did. They´ll torture you again. They´ll make you fight the gladiator.  
Worse, even.   
I overheard once that paladins are supposed to be executed by a –.   
You´ll-”

Lance didn´t move for a second and Matt stopped, looking at his friends, who were still with them.

“ I know, what I am about to say is cliché and all, but -   
Tell the others it had been an honor to serve with them. Tell them – tell them to find someone else to pilot blue as soon as possible.  
Tell the others I love them with all my heart.  
Tell blue, I´ll miss her.   
Tell Keith I – I wished we could have been friends sooner. -”

Matt interrupted his little hurtful speech.  
“You plan to die?”, he asked incredulously. This was supposed to be a joke, right? They had a chance to flee with green, no matter what was about to happen.   
“You know we could just blast the doors open, right? The hangar doors, I mean.”

Lance nodded, hesitating for a second.   
“But the ship would follow you. The Galra will try to destroy green. And green alone is not strong enough to defeat the whole ship.  
Not without her true paladin. If blue was here, I might have-

Anyway – bring Pidge her lion. And don´t you dare to leave a single scratch on her!”, Lance demanded, before he headed off, still unsteady on his own feet, only to disappear in the opposite direction they would be heading for next.

The next thing Matt remembered was that he had somehow managed to head towards the hangar of the green lion.  
Of course they still had to fight their way through. But he didn´t notice how some of the guards where real Galra this time.  
He didn´t see the long white haired man commanding the soldiers, but he did feel the stab in his side, as one of their weapons cut through his flesh.

He remembered how his friends had been hurt along the way and he believed everything would be over.  
But then, suddenly the robotic soldiers lost all the life in them. The hangar slowly opened and Matt knew, Lance must have made it.

Everything else happened too fast to be recalled.  
Matt kicked the Galra holding him hostage in their gut, freed one of his friends and made it to the lion just in time to blast a whole in the ship.   
Right between the left prisoners and Galra who had captured them.

They left right after. Unfollowed, as Lance had promised.

 

\--------------------------------------

* present *

“Of course, someone will come after Lance. Someone else will pilot the blue lion, someone who fits the description. More than he did, at least.”,

Allura hold her arm, she knew she made them all angry. But what was she supposed to say otherwise.  
She remembered the previous paladins. All people she had believed would never be replaceable, but the lions choose somebody else once.  
They would do the same for Lance, right?!

“You´re right. They will.   
They will always find someone to pilot someone else. But that does not make Lance replaceable!  
Nobody can replace Lance.”, Pidge almost shouted and Allura understood all too well.  
She didn´t want him to be replaceable either. Lance was valid, even to someone who always pretended to be annoyed by his jokes.

However, Pidge took a deep breath, until she continued.  
“But Lance can replace each of us.”

Allura looked up. And she was not the only one. Keith eyes widened, just as if he knew what Pidge was about to say.  
As if he had thought something similar before.

“What do you mean?”, Allura asked in hesitation.

But it was Coran who answered. “She means, that Lance isn´t the rightful blue paladin, just as you thought.  
The same way he isn´t green´s paladin, or red´s, or yellow´s, or black´s.  
And yet, we believe Lance is capable of piloting each one of them.”

Allura blinked and even Hunk opened his mouth in confusion. 

“Princess, I believe Lance would be able to pilot EVERY lion.”

Allura stared at him for a second as Coran looked at her with knowing eyes. She opened her mouth, just as Hunk did to say something, but no word could be found.

“It is true, you know!”, Keith cut himself in. “Lance can be observant and calm in the one second, but as hot headed and spontaneous as me!  
He speaks multiple languages and remembers everything, Pidge has ever explained to him!  
Also, I always believed Hunk was the one supposed to connect all of us with humor and fun and stuff, but Lance does that too!  
And I am sure, he would be a great leader as well!”, he rushed himself, but this was only the basic information he got over the past few weeks.

Right now, he was unable to understand what was going on exactly, as Allura still looked at Coran with widening eyes.

“B-but Coran! You know that only the purest of the purest Alteans are able to use quintessence!  
Lance would not - it´s not possible... I-”

Coran shook his head.   
“Ariana is his mother.”

Allura gaped at him.   
Time seemed to stretch as nobody dared to comment such a confusing statement.

And then, as if reality finally started to sink in, she rushed over to the control panel and started tipping in something, Keith could not even decipher as words.

“Princess? What are you doing?”, he asked, ignoring the confused stares from his brother.   
“I am trying to find out if Lance´s data is compatible with – with her. I´ll try to activate her for now, but she has to choose him herself. This is probably the only way to save him and the possibilities are low, but -  
It should be impossible. Since generations nobody has ever been able to -   
There it is.”

Allura stopped again as she stared at the words appearing right in front of her.  
But only Pidge was able to make out something of all the signs rushing over the bright blue screen.

“Allura, what does this mean?”, Pidge asked. Keith watched, as her eyes narrowed at the screen and then at Allura. How the annoyance started to boil in her eyes, but also fascination.

Allura didn´t answer at first, trying to figure out what the hell this mess was supposed to be.  
At one point, Coran stepped up to her and put his hand on her shoulder for support.

Then, as if Coran had given her a sign, she turned around again and stared at each one of them in hopeful determination.

“This means, that Lance still has a chance. But, we need to form Voltron, right – now!”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Let´s go down swinging" - Lance McClain, s02, e13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can we please ignore how I rushed the whole thing and there is like no true ending?  
> But guys, this was such a ride!  
> I had so much fun with this fic! In case you wonder what Lance has been going through... use your own experiences ;)  
> They are canon too, you know.
> 
> I hope you guys had fun and don´t mind my mistakes too much. ^^
> 
> I am actually quite proud of myself for finishing it on time and exactly how I had wanted it to end.  
> With lots of answered but also not answered questions :)

* inside the green lion, several hours ago *

 

“We made it.”, the Galra said and sighed in relief, but as much as Matt wanted to be happy, something was still nagging at his mind.

They left Lance behind. Sure, they had just met, but Matt already felt like he knew him for a while.   
It felt as if Pidge had told him about Lance once. He even felt like he knew everyone of Lance´s family. Pidge´s new family.

It sounded beautiful. Friendly and fun and comforting, in a world where both of them had lost their original family.   
Neither Lance nor Matt where about to see their family again soon too, by the way.

Even the upcoming reunion with Shiro was only a small triumph compared to the prize they had paid. But then again, he had known Lance for a few hours at most.

Ridiculous, really. 

Was Lance even worth thinking about?

Suddenly he felt something angrily growling at him. And for a second he had believed it was one of the Galra, until he remembered it was the lion who was trying to talk to him.

And the lion did not seem to appreciate the way he thought about Lance. Was it because for a moment he thought Lance would be saved by the rest of team Voltron later?  
Or how he believed that to the universe, the loss of this one paladin would probably be nothing at all?

Suddenly Matt noticed something else. The thoughts and the ignorance of the other prisoners who were standing right behind him.   
Especially the low opinion of the Galra became evident as at the same time, Matt´s own thoughts were revealed to them.

 

Matt´s own wavering opinion of a paladin he only liked because the guy trusted his friends with all of his might. 

Mind melding?

Green showed him how Lance loved his friends dearly and cared about each of them as much as he did about the prisoners.

Though he had only met them on this particular day.

Feelings were planted in their minds as green showed them how Lance had wanted to destroy the hangar of the ship only a few hours ago.  
How he had given up on that thought the moment he realized there where innocent people on board.  
His decision strong enough to block out every kind of hesitation.

How he had decided their life was worth dying for.

In fact, green showed them everything.  
Lance had been through a lot in his life. Maybe not as much as the prisoners had, but even the smallest mistakes made Lance the way he was now.

Sure, the guy could never understand their pain fully, but he was well aware of that.   
He would never pretend his life was worse then that of anyone else. But he would also know what he deserved.

What his right was. Lance had not tried to save them to become a hero, though he might have considered it (and hated himself for thinking that way).  
He did not go there for a special reason, because he was pitying them, but because he knew that they as well deserved better.

And especially people like them who had suffered so long, without the advantages he himself had, Lance had decided to give his life for them.  
For people he never met before. He didn´t know. He never had to care about.

Just because to him it was important. Lance wanted them to have a second chance. No matter who they were, what they might have done in the past, no matter the consequences of this action.

Lance was an honest person. He was afraid, for sure. But this was kind of his job. Still this was also what he had wanted to do.  
He had wanted them to live their own life´s.   
Like he had been allowed to live his own.  
Like he had been allowed to start all over again, when it broke apart.

 

\-------------------------

 

Lance was conscious. Of course he was. Haggar would not do him the favor of sleeping through the increasing pain.

He would face the gladiator soon.  
Matt had warned him. He should have known that he was to face the robeast. Instead of a fair fight, unsurprisingly. 

And yet, the only thing he could think about were his friends. Did they make it out alive?  
Hopefully, they were not on their way to save him.  
After all, who knew how soon they would find another blue paladin.

Would they be able to form Voltron once again? Would they be strong enough to fight a robeast on their own?  
After all, without him, they would not be as strong as before.

´or so you hope´, the evil voice in his head reminded him. “Stop harassing me, I know what you want me to believe, a**hole.”, Lance growled in response.  
“We´ve been over that, haven´t we? Maybe I am wrong, maybe they will find the rightful blue paladin right away. No problems and all.  
Perhaps they don´t need me. That does not change the fact that they needed me up until now.  
I did my purpose. I already contributed my life for this b*llsh*it. It might not be enough, but it is all I can give!”, he added.

“Talking to yourself again, I see.”, a dark voice suddenly interrupted Lance´s very important conversation.

“What do you want, Lotor?!”, Lance hissed. 

“Oh, you know. I was just checking if you were insane already or if you need more medication.  
Seems like the first option already fits the description.”, he grinned at Lance, his sharp teeth proving his wild aura.   
Not to mention his purple skin proving his Galra heritage.

Lance laughed at the sassy comment, but he decided not to answer. Instead he just shook his head, as if Lotor did not know what he was talking about.  
This, obviously, didn´t taste the way the Galra prince had wanted. What a spoiled brat.

“Well, blue paladin. I must say, I am impressed at you stubbornness. I imagined you, well stronger physically.  
But I really thought your mind was weaker. How fitting for the ice paladin to feel indifferent to the images of his friends dying.  
You would be quite the nice addition to my – collection.”  
At his last words, he reduced the distance. But Lance did not even bat an eye.

“But it seems, I have to stuff your body after your next appointment.”, Lotor clicked his tongue in disapproval.  
Lance smiled at that. 

“You guys are still hoping for my friends to come here to rescue me, so you can capture them, don´t you?!”, Lance grinned, eyeing Lotor amused.

“What are you laughing at. Of course they will. You can try and irritate me as much as you want? I am not as stupid as my fathers slaves. Newsflash, your tricks won´t work.”

“Oh come on, you purple – something altean. Let me tell you something. You destroyed my helmet, the green lion is gone, there is no chip they could track me with.  
They don´t even know where I am! You wormholed your sorry a**es out of here right after your prisoners escaped.

How do you expect them to find me?”, Lance laughed, ignoring the way it caused the wound on his ribs to open once more after it had dried out from lack of moving.

Again, Lotor growled to himself. After everything he was cautious about, the paladin did have a point.   
“They will, somehow. Besides, you do know that we will kill you soon, right?!   
You are only shortening up your time in this cell by trying to waste my time.”

At this, Lance could not stop himself. He barked out laughing like a maniac as he tried to hold back the tears in his eyes.  
Not from the pain his shaking caused him. After all, he was chained to the ground in a kneeling position, his hands hold up by metal bars.

No, his laughter was the only thing causing him to loose the water in his eyes. And his sanity, for some reason. 

“Dude, you totally don´t understand how much I do not care, right now.”

Lotor stared at the pathetic excuse of a paladin in front of him. The guy had to be insane right? Lotor tried not to show it, but the guys reaction kind of impressed him.   
He had seen a lot of crazy people in his life. He had seen many people who had struggled with his mother´s ´treatment´.  
But never had he ever met someone who was facing him with such an indifferent aura.

Even if he was insane, he should be scared, right? Loosing his mind in a fit of sobs instead of laughter.

That is what Lotor had imagined, when the guards had told him about the conversations the paladin was holding with himself.

Though he was still talking normally with Lotor. Well, with a lot of spite, honestly, but he appeared aware of his surroundings.  
And about the self-talk. It did not seem like he was using some kind of device to contact Voltron.   
Also, they should have been here by now if it was like that. 

No, this guy was totally honest. 

“Lance, right?”, Lotor interrupted Lance´s fit of laughter. The blue paladin tried to stop himself from chuckling, but it did not work exactly.  
So he nodded instead, with a playful smile in his eyes.

“If only you were not part of my father´s worst enemies. “, he murmured, but he knew, Lance could still hear him.  
Lotor sighed in disappointment.   
He dismissed the memories of the blue paladin making his way through the broken pieces of the collapsing planet from hours ago.  
And decided against the idea to add this human to his personal guards. 

After all, the standard was being of mixed race. Also, he doubted the guy would betray his friends.  
Otherwise he would have done so already.

He almost seemed desperate to die, actually. 

No.   
He just did not care.

Zarkon needed to work on the types of people he declared his foes.

Lotor sighed in defeat as he left the inmate of the ´special treatment cell´.   
It could have been worth it.

“If you intend to leave, close the door please. It´s getting cold in here.”, Lance shouted after him.  
Lotor turned around to look the grinning paladin deadly in his damaged eyes.  
“Quite the joker, aren´t we?!”  
Lance´s smile slowly disappeared as Lotor swirled around again and turned his back on him.  
His expression turned cold as he whispered to himself again.  
“More than you know.”

\----------------------------------

 

Allura stared at the unconscious figure of the blue lion. Out of commission, without any hint of life or – whatever quintessence made of them.

She had always believed blue choose her paladins lightheartedly. Especially since the moment she let Lance of all people pilot it. Her.  
Allura still had to find out how to address the lions. How could you know their gender anyway?  
These lions did not reproduce and you could not exactly ask them about it.  
Did it even matter?

Well, back to the main topic.  
Blue refused to let her in. Allura, princess of altea. A leading figure. Calm and cautious at everything she did.  
Only biased in certain areas because of reason.

And yet, the blue lion was out of it. Allura was not sure if it was about her, or the damage. But considering the amount of time the blue lion had to repair herself - 

Allura looked at her own two feet.

“Blue lion? I – I think I have to apologize. I think I know why you are angry at me and of course I understand.  
Underestimating Lance was one of the biggest mistakes I have ever made in my life.  
Now I know that each time I ridiculed him, I – I was wrong.  
Lance is not lazy, he was actually taking things seriously and I was stupid enough not to recognize it.

I should have listened to him more carefully. I should have checked up on him more often, I-”

Suddenly the blue lion´s eyes started glowing with a deadly lightning as she stood up to growl again.  
Panic overcame the princess. This was different than opening up to someone.  
Blue was angry, panicking and desperate for her paladin.

Something must have happened. Was their time running out already? Allura bit her lips as Blue roared out again.

What she had not expected were the answers, blue was receiving.

And suddenly everything was a mess.

Four lions crashed through the open hangar door, as if to assure blue was alright. Screaming and shouting were almost visible as the paladins either stormed through the doors or were forced out their lions.  
Wind, which should not exist in space, almost as strong as a storm blew the few paladins through the hangar.

Only a single paladin was still standing.

Confusion, as well as irritation covered his face, as his friends stared up at him like he was the lion king in person.  
The description was quite accurate, actually, as the lions attention was directed solely on him.

Mothman.

 

*  
*  
*

 

Just kidding, it was Keith.

Allura tried to say something, as suddenly the aura in the room changed. Pictures appeared right in front of them.  
Well, not pictures exactly. But emotions.

Emotions for people they had never met before. Emotions that were set for family and friends.  
Even for the lions.  
It did not even need a second glance to know this were the feelings Lance had showed the lions.

Feelings they had always known Lance felt, but had never known the intensity of it.

But that was not all.

They showed them what Lance was feeling right now. 

They could see him in the iron cell, waiting to be tortured.  
They could feel and even hear what he was talking about with himself.

“They won´t come to rescue me.”, he said in an almost mocking tone as he looked like someone had used hours just to annoy him.  
“Well, it would be stupid, don´t you think?”, another male voice said, causing Keith to frown at the image.

What made him shiver, however, where the drained emotions of carelessness being produced through the mind connection.  
“Oh, it would not. I am the blue paladin, you know? Or was at least.”

“Don´t you mean the pathetic excuse for the right paladin?!”, the guy continued. Another figure was standing right behind him.  
Someone even Keith recognized as Haggar. 

“Precisely.”, Lance laughed again. 

It went on like this. Lotor asking him questions and Lance answering each one of them in spite. Not caring about the way he himself was portrayed.

Though it was even worse when after some time, the images became more evident, more clear to them.

Keith winced in pain as he saw the broken limbs that were chained to the ground in weird angles.  
The other paladins did not even remember they were still at the ground, when suddenly, Lance´s expression changed.

It weren´t words that had set him up in this particular moment.   
Though Lotor grinned as he thought he had finally reached his goal. But Lance looked around, searching for the source of whatever he had noticed before.

“I wonder what your friends would do, if they knew you did not care about their death.”

“Hold it there, Lotor. I think I felt something.”, Lance shushed him down.  
“Did you just shush me?”, Lotor asked, incredulous at his disrespect.

Keith, however, suddenly knew what was going on. The mind melding was not one sided. This was what the lions had wanted them to do.  
They had found a way to connect to Lance. But how? And more importantly, why now?

Though there was one thing, Keith did not like about it.  
Lance had been so calm only seconds ago. But now, he was cautious and nervous as if he expected them to jump out somewhere around the corner.  
Was Lance more afraid of them coming to rescue him than them being killed?

“Tell me, what got you so worked up right now? Blue Paladin! What is your biggest fear?!”, Haggar shouted and ignored the way Lotor tried to bring back their conversation.

Suddenly, Keith felt a shiver and he knew it had been Lance. Because Keith himself was feeling the crushing fear of them actually torturing Lance.  
He himself was afraid of loosing Lance and that was everything Lance understood.

It was exactly this fear and this deep kind of caring, ignorant to the similar frightened expressions and feelings the other paladins had that started to torture Lance.

“You are afraid of loosing me!”, Lance whispered. 

Keith felt it in an instant. All the years Lance must have shut down his own needs, ignoring the way he wanted to be treated.  
Shutting down every believe and hope that he deserved to be liked.  
Forgetting that people considered his worth.  
That he had a purpose.

Lance must have been used to feel like the replaceable one. But now he was confronted with Keith point of view.  
And despite his fear, Keith decided it was finally time for Lance to know how much he cared about him.  
He couldn´t stop himself either way.

Why were it only Keith´s feelings projected to Lance? Why was it him and not Hunk, his best friend?  
Or Allura who still had to show that she actually cared about him?  
Why not Pidge who just started appreciating Lance´s abilities?  
Or Shiro, his biggest hero?

Coran, the only one who seemed to understand him? Who seemed to have cared enough?

Matt or the other prisoners who only needed a few hours and the mind melding of a certain green lion to like Lance?

The answer was easy. Simple, really. 

Because Keith had actually done everything in his might to do all that for Lance. Because he had felt like he was receiving so much more from Lance.

Happiness, family, support, care, understanding, love.

Finally Keith had the word for what he had been feeling all this time. Why he had wanted to stay away from Lance in the beginning, but got addicted the moment he started to search for him.

His ridiculous jokes, his attempts to lighten whatever mood. His awareness of others, his precision.  
His lack of prejudice.   
His smile, his laugh, his everything. 

Keith loved it. Loved him.  
Though it scared him too.   
It was this instant that he knew Lance felt the same. It was the same moment Lance was breaking down in tears at the realization.

Lotor and Haggar just stared at him. How would they ever understand?

How much more it hurt for Lance to know how much Keith would suffer at his death than dying himself. How he would have wanted Keith to live on, but knew right away this was deeper than any crush he had ever had in his life. 

He had always known, after all.

Memories flooded Keith´s mind. Memories of himself. Lance had followed him at the Garrison?  
Lance had wanted to be close to him so long ago, already?

(It kind of made sense now, why Lance had not despised him for stalking him those past few month´s.)  
One second later, the connection broke as Lotor demanded that Lance was broken enough to face the gladiator now.  
That realization must have finally gotten to him.  
And the awareness of loosing everything he cared about was enough to kill him soon.

“We need to form Voltron and do whatever you had been planning to do.”, Keith said in a drained voice.  
“What?”, Allura asked, confused as if she had just forgotten everything she had wanted to do before.  
“Oh, y-yeah. Sure. Let´s- let´s form Voltron.”, she continued and finally stood up.

“However, Allura! You will not pilot blue. In your current condition, you won´t be able to.  
Pidge, your Lion allowed Lance to pilot her in order to rescue the both of you.   
I am positive, blue will do the same for him.  
It won´t be much, but it should be enough to form Voltron.

Call your brother, he will pilot green! He did it once. He can do it again.”

Keith demanded everything with a stern voice. And as if the lions had decided to listen to their lion king, they leaned down to whatever person he had choosen.

Green went as far as to roar over his connection to the castle to call out to Matt.

“This will be quite the ride.”, Keith whispered to red, as she bowed down to let him in.

 

\------------------------------------

Lance´s head was directed to the ground as he stepped into the arena. He was the last prisoner left and he was to be executed.  
So there were quite a bunch of spectators present. The only noise Lance hated the most.  
Audience, perfect.

How did they make that connection with the lions? Had there been a secret, nobody had told him about?  
No. Otherwise, Keith would not have been so down.

Keith.

Lance sighed. Did this guy seriously have to confess while the Galra prince was trying to figure out his biggest weakness?

“Always a step ahead of me, huh, Keith?!”, he murmured as a growl interrupted his supposedly last thoughts.

This was the moment. His last moment. Recalling the broken feelings Keith had projected to him at the knowledge of his soon death.

The robeast however was looking fine.

“Figured that my death will become a stupid joke again. Everything for the image, right?!”, Lance thought ironically.   
You did not face a robeast that looked like a giant puppet every day, right?

A giant, dark puppet, with a stern smile plastered to his face. Unable to express anything than creepy happiness.  
Bounded by strings to the ceiling. If Lance had a weapon, it would not do him any favor.  
It was already amazing that he could finally make out the strings again.

Though he wasn´t exactly sure if he was standing on dirt, dust or blood.  
Maybe a mix of all of those.   
How ironic that Lance was about to face his death like this.  
Killed by the people he hated the most. Fought by the image of his own soul.  
But defeated by the one person he had learned to love.

He smiled to himself again, as he looked up.

He stopped blocking out the noise around him. All these voices that wanted him to die.   
´Well – we are not going to disappoint them today, are we?´, the evil voice said.  
But he could not stop himself agreeing for once.

Looking up at the wavering robeast that was to kill him, Lance nodded again in determination.  
Who cared about his wounds? Who cared about the blurr his eyes pretended were reality?  
Who cared about his death?

The only thing that mattered to him was Keith´s happiness. Lance could not win, but he would try to do so anyway.  
For the only person who believed he could do it. The only guy wanting him to survive.  
The one person he did not want to disappoint. 

“Let´s go down swinging!”, he mumbled to himself, as Lotor finished the speech nobody seemed to have listened to. 

The first attack was still inside of Lance´s possibilities. It was just one wave of an arm, filled full of quintessence.  
So he just dodged it only to jump at the next attack.

One of the specialties of the robeast was his precision as well as the strength focused in his arms.  
His legs would have been uselessly hanging from the ceiling, since they were tied to the strings, but the one moment Lance considered himself save, a foot came rushing down at his ribs.

In one single movement, after three seconds at max, Lance was down. Crashing against the glass that was supposed to protect the spectators in the audience.

Lance´s breath was heavy, as he tried to look at his attacker again.  
He fell down the glass again and the hard ground embodied his lame figure.

He could feel the broken ribs poking at his lungs, as he coughed out blood, only for the pain to increase at his whole body shaking.  
Why was he still conscious?  
Why was he still alive?

Though, he kind of felt himself drifting away already. His mind went black as his breath became nonexistent.  
His heartbeat followed next.   
After that the pain left his body, forever.

 

\---------------------------------------------  
Pink was the color of a fallen soldier.   
Yellow was the color of happiness. Not matter which world you came from.  
Blue was the color of the calm. Ice, precision.  
Green was the color of nature, but also intellect and understanding.  
Black was the color of the leader. The strategist.  
Red was the color of passion.

He felt them calling out to him.  
Voltron, calling for their biggest weapon. The weapon made from pure quintessence. The strongest there was.  
A part of Voltron that nobody had ever been able to control.   
Not his mother, no other paladin either.

Quintessence, however, was a funny thing. It made you whole again.  
And the person Lance was, was not the person he had expected himself to be. Ever.

Sometimes lions made exceptions when it came to their pilots. However, there was one who didn´t.  
And she was the pickiest of them all.  
Because her pilot had to combine the traits of all paladins. And they needed a kind heart and a strong soul.

The white lion.

 

\---------------------------------------------------

 

For the first time in ever, the white paladin arose.   
His whole body glowing as the quintessence healed his wounds. Finally he could see clearly. See the shocked expressions of Galra who had been staring at his passed out body in delight.

Only to see a lion building itself from nothing but light.  
The connection to her paladin not even needing his eyes to see, though he could use both if he wanted to.

A second passed where Lance stared at the robeast without any kind of emotion.   
White did not need a jaw blade. White was quintessence itself, her whole body was a weapon. And with only that, they jumped at the enemy, which only Voltron should be able to defeat.

However, Lance only needed to cut the strings for it to fall into itself.  
Nothing should have been able to cut through the binding chains, but the robeast was only a mere container of pure hatred.  
The weakest quintessence there is.

Lance was surrounded by a life force. A will to live, a callout to friends and the people you love.  
He felt it all, though he did not feel at all.  
The moment the robeast was down, the lion digged into it like in raw meat.  
Eating it alive, slowly killing whatever made it move.

When Lance turned towards the Galra prince and his mother, he know they were unable to move. But he neither felt hate nor anything else for them.  
So he moved around in his lion, cutting his way through the glass to the audience and then the walls keeping him from escape.

His true destination was Voltron.  
After all. He was it´s joker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes. This is the end.   
> Lance does return, hugs Keith and blue his so happy to see him and stuff.  
> His lack of emotion caused them to let Lotor alive who has actually no reason to be here at all?  
> Whatever, considering the spoilers, he will have enough screen time in season 3 anyways.
> 
> Lance will become Voltron´s strongest weapon when he is needed. Which happens rarely.  
> Maybe the blue lion will get pumped up with quintessence and become super strong or smt.  
> Use your imagination, your own headcanons.  
> After all, Lance is the seventh wheel. So seven chapters only. (This one has been the longest so far, get over it XD)


End file.
